Mom Challenges Idaho Rape Law

4-23-2012 Idaho:

The courts have branded him a rapist. But Allan Lewis' mother claims her son is the victim of a heavy-handed legal system that fails to address the realities of sexual activity among young people. What's more, said 60-year-old Paula Lewis of Sandpoint (pictured), the law allows promiscuous underage girls, like the 14-year-old Lewis claims seduced her son, to continue their sexual exploits with impunity.

“Number one, I don't think he should be a registered sex offender,” Paula Lewis said. “And I don't think it should be rape by my definition. He had (consensual) sex with someone underage. But I think of rape as forcible, or a violent thing, or coercion.” Her definition, however, is not consistent with Idaho law, said Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson Jr. (who said … “it's … simply against the law, and it's simply wrong, for an adult man to be having sex with a young girl.”

Allan Lewis, who was 19 when arrested on two counts of rape and other sexual charges, admitted to one count of rape as the result of a plea agreement ..For the rest of this story: by David Johnson, Lewiston Tribune