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March 18, 2005
Defense argues sex with girl 'consensual'
Slate Hill – It was a romance that was doomed from the start.
He was 30.
She was 14.
They talked about marriage, about having kids, about building a life together.
It wasn't meant to be.
One month ago, and three years into their relationship, Bruce Etheridge, who is now 33, was arrested by state police and charged with statutory rape, a felony.
It was a relationship that was ill-advised and illegal, but consensual, according to Etheridge's lawyer, Goshen-based Michael H. Donnelly.
Shortly after he was arrested, several parents from the Minisink Valley School District, where Etheridge was employed as a security guard, said they had complained to school officials years ago about him being too friendly with young girls.
Donnelly, who is angry at the portrayal of his client as a dangerous sexual predator, defended Etheridge this week, saying the allegations against him did not involve other students. He said that the couple were "deeply in love."
"He is devastated by these allegations," Donnelly said. "He knows it was illegal to do what he is charged with and it was not something that society would condone."
The girl, who was not identified, told police investigators that the sexual contact between her and Etheridge started when she was 14 and continued for three years. Donnelly said Etheridge and the girl didn't have sexual intercourse until she was at least 16. In New York state, the age of consent is 17.
After a lengthy investigation by the Orange County Child Abuse Investigation Unit, Etheridge was arrested and charged with third-degree rape and third-degree sodomy, felonies, as well as third-degree sexual abuse, endangering the welfare of child and forcible touching, misdemeanors.
Etheridge, who worked as a security guard at the middle school for the past nine years, has been fired. Under an order of protection issued against him by the family, he is barred from having any contact with the girl.
But the charges he is now facing in Orange County Court, which could land him in prison and brand him as a sex offender, don't tell the whole story, his lawyer says.
"He loves that young woman deeply and misses her very much," Donnelly said.
The girl's family could not be reached for comment. The Orange County district attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case, did not return a phone call seeking comment yesterday.
In conversations between Etheridge and the girl, taped by state police investigators as part of their case against him, the couple talked about their feelings for each other, about ending their relationship and about confronting her parents.
"They used the conversations to build a case against him," Donnelly said. "She had no idea that he would be arrested. They told her nothing was going to happen."
On Tuesday, Etheridge appeared in Orange County Court before Judge Stewart Rosenwasser, where Assistant District Attorney Kelly Grimmer offered him a deal under which he would plead guilty to the statutory rape charges for a lesser sentence.
He is due back in court April 22.
Posted by Nealus at March 18, 2005 10:02 AM
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