No Jail for Sex with Boy

(St. Charles, Illinois) A 52-year-old woman, Deborah Beauregard, pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic battery in a case involving sexual abuse of a boy between 13 and 16 years old. Beauregard was originally indicted on multiple counts of criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse for acts committed between May and December 2004.

It's not clear why Circuit Judge Grant Wegner accepted the sweetheart plea deal for Beauregard but, nonetheless, she was only sentenced to probation and will not have to register as a sex offender.

The sentencing decision in this case is arguably one of the most lenient I've seen for sex crimes against a child. In fairness, though, many of the details of the case haven't been reported so there may be many, many mitigating factors. Even so, I can't imagine a 52-year-old man, having engaged in sexual molestation of a young teen girl for at least six months, walking away from court with a sentence that is hard to even describe as a hand-slap.