US: Attorney representing lesbian teenager charged for relationship with younger girl asks judge to step down
Update 19/06 14:00: It was initially understood that attorney Julia Graves was to step down from the case, however new reports suggest that she wishes Judge Robert Pegg to remove himself from the case.
The attorney representing a lesbian teenager who was charged with a felony for having sexual relations with her younger girlfriend, has asked for the presiding judge to remove himself from the case.
Kaitlyn Hunt faces felony charges after the mother of her girlfriend, aged 14, notified police of the relationship as soon as she turned 18.
She has been charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a child 12 to 16 years of age and has been expelled from Sebastian River High School, in the town of Sebastian, Florida.
Her family a private conversation between her and her then girlfriend was secretly recorded by police and her girlfriend’s family, during which they discussed kissing in the school bathroom.
Circuit Judge Robert Pegg has set a trial date for September, and attorney Julia Graves filed a motion on Monday which alleged that the case was being singled out, because the trial date was set before over 200 other criminal cases.
Ms Graves made the allegations, saying that the case was coming to a trial prematurely, and asked him to step down from the case, reports the Associated Press.
Earlier in May, Hunt rejected a plea deal, which would have put her under house arrest for two years, and labelled her a sex offender.
LGBT rights advocates have argued that the case is being unfairly singled out because the couple are gay, and that young romances with similar age differences are commonplace.
The letter accuses the state of “losing perspective”, calls Ms Hunt a “bright young girl”, and notes the consensual nature of her relationship.
