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A teen is charged as a sex offender after his 15-year-old girlfriend becomes pregnant during consensual sex; he was 16.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 8, 2001
LARGO -- The teenagers wrote love letters in a notebook. On its cover, the girl wrote in white-out ink, "I love Joey." Inside, Joey Stellini scrawled in pencil, "You are my dream girl."
They thought their romance would last forever.
Over the July 4 weekend, the young couple did what their families forbade. They had sex. And soon the girl learned she was pregnant. They talked excitedly about the future and visited a doctor together. In his room, he kept a sonogram that outlined the distinct profile of his unborn son like some teens keep baseball cards tucked away in a dresser drawer.
But the teens who were a year and three months apart in age soon learned how the state of Florida defined their sexual act.
To prosecutors, the 16-year-old boy committed a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 16 by having consensual sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend.
Now Joey Stellini may lose his freedom.
"Your kids need to be nuns or priests because, if they're not, they're going to jail," said Tom Rogers, 51, Stellini's stepfather.
On April 3, Stellini's girlfriend gave birth to a baby boy. Stellini, now 17, isn't allowed to see his son.
The birth made him a father. Now Stellini waits to see whether it also will make him a felon.
In March, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe's office charged Stellini with the felony after his girlfriend's guardians -- her aunt and uncle -- complained about the relationship.
If convicted in juvenile court, Stellini faces anything from confinement in a juvenile facility until he's 21 to probation or community service.
He also could be branded a sexual offender and be forced to get sex offender treatment like an older child molester convicted of the same crime.
"This is garbage," said Hope Rogers, 43, Stellini's mother. "I'm not saying what they did was right. But kids do stupid things every day. They're going to ruin my son's life for doing something teenagers have always done? They can go to the high school right now and lock up half the 16-year-olds in the county."
McCabe did not return phone calls. But other prosecutors say that the law is clear. Even if Stellini had been a day older than 16, and his girlfriend a day younger, the charge is appropriate, they say.
"I suggest you direct your call to the Legislature, which wrote the law," said Bruce Bartlett, McCabe's chief assistant. "We're just enforcing the law. We don't build them. We just fly them."
In this case, Stellini refused to stay away from his girlfriend and stop having sex with her over the objections of the guardians, Bartlett said.
Stellini denied having sex with the girl once the guardians told them to stop.
The guardians "had no options available to them but to go to law enforcement," Bartlett said. "You have to look at it from the parents' perspective.
"If you had a 15-year-old daughter and someone got her pregnant, you'd probably feel differently about someone being charged. I don't think this is out of line. He should be held accountable."
The girl and her guardians are not named in this story because the law considers her the victim of a sex crime. The girl's guardians declined to comment.
State Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, who heads the Pinellas and Hillsborough legislative delegations, said, "My first reaction is that the charge is wrong . . . I don't see any great, compelling interest for the state to get involved in this."
But, he said, "If the law's on the books, I guess it should be prosecuted like any other law."
Attorney John Trevena, who represents Stellini, said this law is for child molesters, for adults who prey on the young, not for teenagers like Stellini. He said prosecutors could use better discretion in choosing how to enforce the law.
"I don't see prosecutors enforcing the law saying it's illegal for an adult man or woman to have sex unless they're married," Trevena said.
In fact, that act is a misdemeanor.
"It seems like sometimes the law micromanages . . . our everyday lives," said Pinellas School Board member Jane Gallucci. "The legal system should be more concerned that this young man isn't running away from his responsibility and make sure this young lady has financial support and her child a good start in life than seeing the father punished."
The teenagers' romance blossomed during the summer. The girl dated one of Stellini's friends. But when he moved away, she and Stellini began dating. He said he fell in love with her at first sight.
The girl's parents had divorced, and her mother, suffering from emotional and financial problems, gave up custody of the girl to an aunt and uncle.
The girl visited Stellini daily after learning of the pregnancy. His parents talked frequently with the girl's aunt and uncle, who knew about the pregnancy and allowed the teens to see each other.
The girl gave Stellini a jewelry box at Christmas with copies of her sonogram pasted inside. In a card, she wrote, "I love you, Joey. And so does your son."
But the girl's guardians suspected that the teens again had sex over the holidays, which they denied.
In February, the guardians won a court injunction to force Stellini to stay away from his girlfriend.
And yet, prosecutors say, Stellini did not stay away from the girl.
Stellini's parents say that the girl actually called him several times. They provided a phone with her caller ID number to prove she called after the injunction was filed.
The guardians called the Pinellas Sheriff's Office to demand that Stellini be charged with a lewd and lascivious act.
A sheriff's deputy who investigated said "the victim's guardian wanted to have the youth charged so that he would "get his act together and do something with his life,' " according to a report by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
The guardian's "main concern is that Joey is not going to take responsibility for his actions as the child's father," the deputy said in another report.
Stellini, his parents and the girl's biological mother say he did take responsibility, going to doctor's appointments with the girl and admitting at the hearing for the injunction that he was the baby's father.
The deputy "tried to explain that having (the) youth charged with a sex offense was not the way for (him) to get his life together," the juvenile justice report said.
The deputy also noted that the guardians had no proof that Stellini had violated the court order.
In an interview, sheriff's Deputy Heather Thompson said, "I thought the guardians wanted to press charges for reasons that I couldn't help them with."
A month later, prosecutors charged Stellini.
"Joey is a decent kid," said the girl's mother, who is not named to protect her daughter's identity. "They love each other. He's stuck by her side this whole pregnancy. How many teenage boys would do that? I can't fathom these charges."
Stellini today lives in a Largo home with his mother, who works in an elementary school cafeteria, and his father, a retired New York City cop who now works at a Home Depot.
He is learning-disabled, his parents say. Last year, they pulled him out of high school because he wasn't making progress. He works at a carwash and hopes to get his GED and become an auto mechanic.
Stellini has never before been charged with a felony, though he once pleaded no contest to misdemeanor trespassing in an unrelated case.
All contact with the girl he still loves and wants to see is prohibited by the court injunction obtained by the girl's guardians.
"It's not fair," the teen said. "They're trying to make me out to be something I'm not. I'm not a criminal."