Idaho Woman Gets No Jail for Sex with Boy

(Meridian, Idaho) Twenty-year-old Janice Earline Gates was found guilty of lewd conduct with a minor under 16 and was sentenced to probation.

The probation is for a term of 10 years with a minimum two-year period required to be served before the probation can be terminated. It's not clear how that works but one must assume that probation orders are easily modified.

Gates has also been ordered to register as a sex offender. For how long is unknown.

Obviously, reporting on the Janice Gates case has been smoke-signal sketchy. Most disturbing is that the exact age of the victim "under 16" has not been disclosed. "Under 16" could be five years old or it could be fifteen years old and assessing sex crimes in each case would produce markedly different results.


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Idaho Woman and Boy
[Previous 7/1/08 post bumped]
(Meridian, Idaho) A 20-year-old local woman, Janice Earline Gates, was arrested yesterday by Meridian Police for allegedly engaging in sex with a boy under 16 years old. Gates has been charged with lewd conduct with a minor under 16.

Police say they were notified by the victim's parents that their son had informed them he had sex with Gates about two weeks ago. Gates worked with the victim's mother and met him about a month ago, officials say.

They began communicating by text messaging on their cell phones which lasted for a couple of weeks.

Police say Gates then met with the victim and took him to a local park where they engaged in sexual intercourse.

Gates was booked into custody at the ADA County Jail.