When Kaitlyn Hunt began to date a teammate on the girls’ basketball team at Sebastian River High School this year, she never considered the implications of the relationship.
The two girls became friends and a relationship blossomed, according to her father Steve Hunt via a Change.org petition requesting the state attorney stop Kaitlyn Hunt’s prosecution. The younger Hunt, a high school cheerleader and senior, turned 18 in August. Her girlfriend was a 14-year old freshman.
According to Stephen Hunt’s petition, the 14-year-old’s parents are only pressing charges because they are against the same-sex relationship.
“The two girls began dating while Kaitlyn was 17 but her girlfriend’s parents blamed Kailtyn for their daughter’s homosexuality,” Kaitlyn’s father wrote. “They waited until after Kaitlyn turned 18 and went to the police to have charges brought against her.”
According to an Indian River County Sheriff’s Office police report, with the help of the 14-year old, detectives secretly taped a telephone call between the two teens in which they talked about their sexual relationship.
Indian River County Jail inmate information shows Kaitlyn Hunt was arrested on Feb. 16 and booked into the Indian River County Jail. She was released on a $5,000 bond a day later, reported an employee at Barnett Bail Bonds. On March 4, the State Attorney’s Office filed charges of two counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a child between 12 to 16 years old. If convicted, she faces 5 to 15 years in prison, according to State Attorney Bruce Colton of the 19th Judicial Circuit.
“As it stands now she has admitted to violating state statute,” said Colton. “The law makes no distinction between two boys or two girls or a boy and a girl.”
Court records show the parents of the alleged victim, who turned 15 after the arrest, asked the judge to order Hunt to have no contact with their daughter. Circuit Judge Robert L. Pegg ruled that Hunt could return to school if she stayed with 100 feet of the victim. Even so, the Indian River School Board voted to expel Hunt. It’s not clear exactly when she was expelled, as student expulsion proceedings are private. But based on court records and the school board’s schedule, it appears she was expelled a few months before graduation.
Indian River School Superintendant Dr. Fran Adams said May 20 she could not comment specifically on Hunt’s case because she is bound by confidentiality. She said the school district followed its Student Code of Conduct. According to the arrest affidavit, the two girls participated in consensual sexual activity on campus, which is a violation of the code.
Hunt is attending an alternative school and will not be permitted to graduate with her class, Adams said. She can appeal the decision.
The story went viral the week of May 20 after Hunt’s father took to social media to plead his daughter’s case. He created a Facebook page titled “Free Kate,” which has almost 25,000 followers. It asks for members to write to their legislators to change the law. Hunt’s Change.org petition has garnered more than 75,000 supporters to ask Colton to stop the prosecution of Hunt. Colton said his job is to enforce the law.
“Nowhere at any time did the family claim she was physically forced,” Colton said of the victim’s parents. “Unfortunately, consent is not a defense to a charge like this.”
Colton said his office has taken into account all aspects of the case including that Hunt has no prior criminal record. Hunt has been offered a plea deal of two years of community control in exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of child abuse. The judge could withhold adjudication and petition to court so that she doesn’t have to register as a sex offender. If she turns down the deal, the case is set for trial in late June.
“We have these cases where an older boy is dating a younger girl and we have to charge it, yet no one raises an eyebrow,” Colton said. “It would be hypocritical of us not to pursue this case.”
Colton said his office has prosecuted a number of these cases since he took office in 1984, but this is the first case that has involved two females.
Julia Graves, Hunt’s defense attorney, would not comment on the case.
