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Grand Jury Report: Man accused of getting girl stoned and engaging in sex act

By Howard B. Owens

Alexander J. Kessler is indicted on counts of criminal sexual act, 1st, criminal sexual act, 3rd, sexual abuse, 1st, endangering the welfare of a child and unlawful dealing with a child. Kessler is accused of providing a female age 17 or under with marijuana and alcohol, and then subjecting her to oral sexual contact without her consent and at a time she was unable to consent because she was physically helpless. The alleged conduct reportedly took place Feb. 25 and/or Feb. 26 in the Town of Le Roy.

Anthony J. Goulet is indicted on a count of assault, 2nd. Goulet is accused of injuring another person by hitting him with a beer bottle on June 15.

Thomas Hammerl is indicted on counts of falsifying business records and criminal purchase of a weapon. Hammerl is accused of attempting to purchase a J. Stevens single 12-gauge shotgun from Gary C. West of Sheard’s Antiques and Guns and falsely answering a question on a U.S. Department of Justice form ATF 4473 regarding his legal eligibility to purchase a gun. Hammerl is allegedly barred from owning firearms due to either a prior conviction or "some other disability which would render him ineligible to lawfully possess a firearm, rifle or shotgun in this state."

Doug Yeomans

In this day and age of modern rules, absurd as some of them are, we charge persons under the age of 21 with a crime if they're caught with alcohol. The girl that Alexander Kessler was charged with sexually abusing, why wasn't she charged with consuming an alcoholic beverage and an illegal drug, marijuana?

If a person under the legal drinking age of 21 can't possess alcohol, why isn't it a crime for a person under the age of consent to have sex? I'm not saying it applies here because the report states that she was unable to consent because she was physically helpless (Out cold). We do read all the time about 16 or 17 year old females having sex with older men or women and they're never charged with a crime because of it.

If we're going to hold underage people accountable for possessing alcohol, why not hold them accountable for saying "yes" when legally they can't give consent? There seems to be a lot of open ended double standards within our clusterflubbed law system.

No, I'm not blaming the girl for being molested but she should share some degree of fault. She willingly ingested alcohol and marijuana and put herself in harms way. We expect young people to take responsibility for so many other things, why not this, too? The adult is ultimately legally responsible....but......is the young woman without guilt?

Edit: We entrust 16 and 17 year old people to drive a vehicle. We allow a 12 year old to obtain a junior archery license and hunt with broadhead arrows..to kill something. We allow a 14 year old to obtain a hunting license and use a firearm. At 18 years of age a person can vote, buy a house, sign a contract, work, join the military but NOT HAVE A BEER. Through all of that, we don't hold them responsible enough to say yes or no to sex and we don't hold them accountable when we should?

Jun 22, 2012, 12:40pm Permalink
Doug Yeomans

Good question, Gary. Notice he wasn't charged with statutory rape so he was probably within 2 years of her age but not of the age of consent himself?

Jun 22, 2012, 3:23pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Ages are not contained in indictments and no arrest report was ever released on this case (I'm guessing it was State Police, who don't put out many press releases on their cases).

Jun 22, 2012, 3:28pm Permalink

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