A Carson City teen received probation Tuesday for the sexual seduction of a 14-year-old girl.
Rafael Osegura-Mendez, 19, must successfully complete up to three years of probation to avoid spending a year in the Carson City jail, said Deputy District Attorney Kristin Luis.
Osegura-Mendez was arrested after the 14-year-old girl told her parents of her relationship with him.
The judge also ordered Osegura-Mendez to have no contact with the girl.
According to Nevada law, a person 18 years or older who has sexual relations with a person under the age of 16 has committed the offense of gross misdemeanor statutory sexual seduction. If the offender is 21 years of age or older, it is a felony.
In Nevada 72 percent of the fathers of babies born to teenage mothers are adults, between the ages of 20 and 54. Those pregnancies are the result of statutory sexual seduction, according to the Nevada State Health Division.
The conviction rate of statutory sexual seduction laws nationally is 77 percent.
"I would say on statutory sexual seduction, we probably see one a month," said District Attorney Noel Waters.
In most of those cases it is a male being charged and the child's parents are initiating the criminal charges, he said.
Once a child reaches 16 in Nevada, they are at the age of consent, Waters said. From the ages of 16 to 18, parents still have legal recourse available to them if they are unable to control their children or disapprove of them seeing an older person, such as having them deemed delinquent.
"Then it's not a criminal matter, and may well be a matter for parental discipline," he said.
Contact F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.
