I was listening to the DA who decided to prosecute the guy be interviewed on the radio today. Two things were interesting to me. First, he said there were at least 2 other girls of similar age to his wife that he dated before his wife. (Well the interesting part was that didn't make it into NY Times article. He gave his last girlfriend his class ring when she was 13 and he was 19. Awww. that would have been such a touching addition to that hearwarming piece on the pedophile.)

And the second thing that boggled my mind was that the mail the DA's been receiving has been largly running anti prosecuting the scumbag. This world confuses me.

Yes, it's creepy, and yes, it's unfortunate that they didn't get more quotes from her... though it's entirely possible that they tried, and she wasn't talking (being 14 and all).

But reading the quotes of the people opposing the prosecution, I must say that I understand them. They aren't arguing for his innocence, but for clemency -- a lately somewhat neglected concept, but, I think, an important one.

And they're arguing for clemency largely on utilitarian grounds. ("They are trying to make a right out of a wrong," Mardell Rehrs, 67, said of the couple on Monday morning. "Give them a chance.")

Is the deterrent effect on other matrimony-seeking pedophiles really worth the social and financial impact on the families of locking this guy up? Is anyone seriously suggesting the child wife would be better off, in this particular case, with the pedophile husband in jail?

Seems to me like the appropriate response would be to leave the two of them alone -- or maybe get them counseling, and make sure she's educated about her rights, given the inevitable power disparity in the relationship -- and raise the marryin' age in Kansas.

Ben,

I'm afraid I don't share your optimism that this will be his last victim. Leaving him alone pretty well lets him know that yes, he can get away with it.

Chance, think like a writer. Is the only plausible scenario here that that guy’s a sick fuck who likes to screw little kids?

Well, the DA prosecuting him says there's evidence he's done it twice before.

So yes, three times is enough to put you in my sick fuck file.

I'm guessing the article focuses primarily on the guy because (a) he's the one who's not a minor, and (b) he's the one being prosecuted. (But I also think the article does mention several things about the girl and her parents, just not as much as about the guy. And I only see one or two direct quotes from the guy, too.)

Chance wrote: "Well the interesting part was that didn't make it into NY Times article."

Well, there's this in the article:

"Mr. Bruning said he was considering additional charges based on complaints that Mr. Koso had sex with other young girls in the past. Mr. Koso's lawyer would not allow him to discuss that, but his mother said he told her that he had dated only one other girl under 16 and that they did not have sex."

...I think it's interesting that the couple got legally married in Kansas, only 18 miles away from home (with their parents' consent); if they had moved to Kansas after the wedding instead of going back to Nebraska, they'd be legal and nobody would be prosecuting.