Few things make a parent’s stomach turn more than seeing their beloved child doing something terrible. Unfortunately, when a Maryland mother went to check on her 14-year-old son, that is exactly what happened.
In most jurisdictions, a 14-year-old is not considered an adult in the eyes of the law.
However, Solomon Pule, a 14-year-old boy from Maryland, is being tried as an adult after raping his 8-year-old cousin and threatening her with scissors.
The incident happened when the mother of Solomon Pule said that she left Solomon and her eight-year-old niece in the room to put her two-year-old child down for a nap. However, never in a million years did she expect to walk in and find her son injuring someone else. As the mother checked on the kids after leaving them unattended for a few minutes as she said, she noticed the children were “unusually quiet,” which we all know means that kids are up to no good.
The mother was then horrified when she walked into her son’s bedroom and caught him sexually assaulting his 8-year-old cousin. When she walked into the room to check on the kids, she saw her son on top of his cousin. She also noticed a pair of scissors lying on the loveseat beside them.
For our children, we just want the best but for this Maryland mother, the unthinkable occurred. She immediately called the Baltimore police. Making her own son get arrested for rape that anyone could never anticipate. Some parents may cover up the incidents but for Solomon’s mother, she did the right thing.
When questioned by detectives, the 8-year-old girl claimed that her cousin had threatened to use the scissors to cut her if she made any noise. She also stated that he put his ‘thing’ in her. In a statement of probable cause, it is said that the girl tried to explain, “Solomon told me if I scream to tell you he was going to cut me,” adding, “He shoved his thing in me.”
Solomon confessed to the crime when questioned. Charges of first- and second-degree rape were brought against him and he was taken to the Baltimore City Detention Center. For the rape, Solomon will be prosecuted as an adult; and if found guilty of the accusations and given the maximum term, this may send him away for the rest of his life.
According to Maryland state law, a child between the ages of 14 and 18 may be tried as an adult if the same offense would result in a life sentence in prison or the death penalty for an adult. According to Maryland law, if a juvenile is 16 years old or older, they can be charged as an adult for crimes like rape, robbery, kidnapping, and offenses involving weapons. Teenagers who are sentenced to adult jail alongside other inmates serve their sentences there.
Adam Rosenberg, Executive Director of the Baltimore Child Abuse Center said, “Young offenders happen with some degree of frequency here, in 2013 alone, we saw 155 cases where the offender was age nine to age fourteen.”
Rosenberg noted that, if they don’t receive the proper care, children who have experienced sexual abuse are much more likely to go on to commit the crime themselves. A critical first step for both the victim and the offender is counseling.
But Rosenberg made the implication that sometimes parents are hesitant to enroll their kids in treatment after the abuse has been found. There could be terrible repercussions as a result of this. He said, “No one’s really ready to put children to therapy, and yet that’s one of the best things that we can do to really prevent bad future outcomes from happening.”
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: Taphaps, concordnewsjournal, patriotnationpress