Sexual harassment leniency problems

Louis Fletcher, Jr. / Columnist

One nation, under males, forever and ever.  It's great being a man.

Sorry about that— I just had to say the Man's Prayer, a little something to help us men get through our hard days of not being worried about sexual victims outside of jail. I mean, life is just oh so hard when you know that no matter what time it is at night, the worst thing that's going to probably happen to you is that you might get robbed.

Women have it so easy. From birth, they get to worry about whether they will make it to marriage without being molested or sexually abused, if a guy is really friendly or using them for something else, or when something does happen, if the law is going to get anything done about it.

I mean, guys, doesn't that sound like something we should have to worry about? Wouldn't that be cool?

For example, take Jeffrey Philip Heyer, a name that for many of you may not ring a bell, but a name that has forever changed the lives of over 50 women.

Heyer videotaped unsuspecting women while they were in his apartment under the facade of a "class project."  He even taped them while they were in his bathtub or bathroom changing for his fake shoot. After being convicted because of the actions of a courageous female student, Heyer was sentenced to 50 to 60 months in prison which he has served none of to this day. Heyer, because of his "clean" record, was given a slap on the wrist in the form of three years probation.

That sentence is so undemanding that he's not even listed as a sexual offender and thus can go out and commit the same crime again without worrying about suspicious people. He must have said his Man's Prayer many times, because with any luck he might pop up on you at graduate school. Heyer had it so complicated compared to all those women—he clearly got the brunt of the punishment for this one.

I don't know how many of you read the local newspaper, but an interesting turn of events has come around in the case of Barry Lee Agnew. Agnew was accused and later acquitted of seven counts of first degree rape, first degree sexual offense and taking indecent liberties with a minor. I don't know all the laws and regulations, but why wasn't he charged and convicted based on his admission of having oral sex with the victim, with statutory rape like Michael Dixon? I guess that oral sex doesn't count in the eyes of the law and having a jury foreman like Rhonda Sykes does help to accelerate your path to innocence.

Sykes replied in the Times-News February 23 issue, saying that if she "thought" Agnew was a pedophile, her decision would have been different. Really Rhonda Sykes, why does having oral sex with a minor not constitute Agnew as being an adult with sexual desire for children? What further proof than his own admission do you need for him to be considered a pedophile since that was what made your decision?

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, these women were dealt far more than they deserved and obviously, the victims got off painless with all the emotional and psychological problems they will have to endure for an unknown amount of time. I'm so glad they have a Man's Prayer to say otherwise.  Who knows what torture they might have had to go through?

Getting off Scott-free and being able to go on with your life…what's harder than that, pray tell?

Contact Louis Fletcher, Jr. at pendulum@elon.edu or 278-7247