Kaitlyn Hunt

‘20/20’: Convicted Child Molester a ‘Peppy Cheer-Leader, Choir Girl’
By Matt Philbin | October 7, 2013 | 11:08 AM EDT

Pity ABC correspondent Matt Gutman, trapped in the wrong career. Clearly, he’s a frustrated publicist, or maybe a producer for a sob-sister daytime talk show. That’s the only charitable way to explain his Oct. 4 “20/20” report on Kaitlyn Hunt.

Hunt, of Indian River, Fla., was an 18-year-old woman when she had multiple sexual encounters in a high school restroom with a 14-year-old girl. She was 19 when she violated a court order forbidding contact with that girl, sending her 20,000 texts, including nude and sexually explicit photos and videos and arranging to meet for sex. Video after the jump.

Media's Favorite Alleged Sex Offender Kaitlyn Hunt Repeatedly Disobeyed Court Orders to Not Contact Victim
By Ken Shepherd | August 16, 2013 | 5:35 PM EDT

Back in May, liberal media outlets like Slate, the New York Times and MSNBC made a bit of a cause celebre the plight of a young Florida woman, Kaitlyn Hunt, who is charged with sex offenses for a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old classmate. Hunt's parents claim she is only being prosecuted because of the same-sex nature of the relationship, suggesting that anti-gay bigotry was motivating the prosecution.

Well, Robert Stacy McCain over at ViralFeed has an excellent August 15 post which shows that prosecutors have evidence that Hunt repeatedly violated court orders not to contact the alleged victim, sent graphic photos and videos to the victim, and even arranged rendezvous with the victim for sexual liaisons (emphasis mine, warning: disturbing language):

HUH? Slate Editor: Kaitlyn Hunt Case 'Is About Gay Rights. But It’s Not About That'
By Matt Vespa | May 24, 2013 | 4:28 PM EDT

This is one of those stories that have you asking yourself if you’re still on planet Earth.  Emily Bazelone of Slate, a Washington Post affiliated site, wrote today that the case of Florida 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt’s sexual affair with a 14-year-old girl “is about gay rights. But it’s not about that.”  This isn’t Bazelon’s first foray into trying to defend the indefensible.  In the aftermath of the Boston Terrorist Attack, Bazelon had a rather extraneous piece about how Dzhokar Tsarnaev was a normal guy in his high school years.

So far, the “free Kate” campaign has animated the far-left of America.  T-shirts, Facebook groups, and Twitter hashtags have all voiced their support for the alleged sex offender, with much of the push tied up in the narrative of victomology. Hunt is being prosecuted, they claim, only because she's a lesbian. Bazleon agrees, but to her credit, writes that perhaps this is more about a law that lacks clarity regarding teen sex:

NYT Devotes National News Story to Fla. Woman Finding 'Online Support' After Statutory Rape Arrest
By Ken Shepherd | May 22, 2013 | 12:45 PM EDT

When does a textbook example of a "local crime story" become worthy of 18-paragraphs of coverage in the national news pages of the New York Times? Well, it helps if it services a socially liberal narrative. Bonus points if that narrative involves persecution for the sake of sexual orientation in some shape or form.

And that's precisely why 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt's arrest for sex with her 14-year-old girlfriend made page A18 in the national print edition of the Times today, in a Carlos Harrison story headlined, "Florida Student, 18, Gets Online Support After Her Arrest for Sex With Girlfriend, 14." For good measure, editors made sure to include a yearbook-style photo of Hunt along with a pull quote from Hunt's mother that the charges are "like a death sentence to all her future goals." [see related item by my colleague Matthew Philbin here]