Jacksonville police: 2 teens accused of sex battery on another teen
Two 15-year-old boys at the Bolles School in Jacksonville have been arrested and charged with sexual battery against a teen, police reports show.
According to the arrest reports, both teens are from out of state, but attend Bolles — a private college prep and boarding school.
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“If they are charged with actual sexual battery, that is a life felony,” Action News Jax law and safety expert Dale Carson said.
Carson is a lawyer who has decades of experience in law enforcement.
He says such cases with juveniles are handled differently than with adults. Carson says the state attorney’s office in Jacksonville has a policy that when people commit egregious crimes, they may be charged as adults.
“Typically young individuals don’t have a criminal history that would put them in that position. But this is a very serious crime, and it’s up to the state attorney to look at the facts of the case to determine whether or not someone should be charged as an adult,” Carson said.
The reports were heavily blacked out for privacy reasons, so it was hard to get a clear idea of what exactly happened. But the reports indicate that police talked to the victim on April 12, who said they’d had several altercations with the suspects, with an incident beginning as early as late January.
According to the reports, several witnesses were aware of the incidents.
Carson says it can be hard to prove things with kids involved in sex crimes, because the state can change the potential penalty based on the age of those involved.
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“It recognizes that young people sometimes behave in ways that we’d prefer they not behave, but it lessens the potential exposure for these very charges,” he said.
Action News Jax has reached out to the school for comment; we are still waiting to hear back.
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