WI- Boy's family fights sex charges

12-10-2008 Wisconsin:

Several teenage girls in Mequon, Wis., say they object to a classmate being criminally prosecuted for allegedly touching them inappropriately.

The girls, in court affidavits, said they did not feel degraded by the boy, now 14, and don't want to see him prosecuted for five counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday.

The boy's parents, who admit their son behaved inappropriately, said he is guilty only of disorderly conduct and could be tagged as a sex offender if prosecutors succeed with their case, the Journal Sentinel reported, noting the family's identity has been withheld to protect the identity of the juvenile.

The boy is to appear in court Feb. 3 for an evidentiary hearing in which experts will give their opinion on whether a 13-year-old boy can be sexually aroused by grabbing a girl's buttocks, the newspaper reported.

Prosecutors allege the boy several times in 2007 and in June 2008, when he was 13, grabbed the girls' buttocks or their breasts, licked a girl's neck and tickled a girl in the stomach. ..Source.. by UPI