A Story of Injustice: When Following the Law Leads to Wrongful Imprisonment

The Man Behind the Story

Meet "Mike" (not his real name) — a man whose life exemplified integrity, service, and unwavering moral character. Raised in a strong missionary family, Mike built his entire existence around helping others and maintaining the highest ethical standards.

0 Criminal Record

10,000 People Lectured

∞ Lives Helped

A Life of Service

Mike founded a successful computer consulting firm that quietly supported numerous charitable organizations including Catholic Charities, United Way, PBS, and UNESCO. His reputation for integrity was so strong that clients were openly amazed by his trustworthiness.

                    A Testament to Character: When Mike discovered that DuPont engineers had modified a computer in a way that prevented his promised software from working, he didn't make excuses. Instead, he purchased a $3,000 replacement computer for the company because he had given his word that the solution would work.
                

Beyond his business success, Mike dedicated countless hours to mentoring others, teaching non-programmers how to code, and providing free counseling to those seeking guidance in their careers and relationships. He was a man people turned to in times of need, knowing he would offer help without judgment.

Triumph Over Tragedy

The Accident: At age 33, Mike's life changed forever when a tractor-trailer drove over his car on a busy interstate, leaving him permanently disabled. Initially unable to lift his hands above his waist or walk without assistance, Mike faced a devastating new reality.

The turning point came when Mike heard his 4-year-old daughter pray for "daddy to be able to lift me up and play with me again." Determined not to let his disability define him, Mike embarked on a remarkable journey of recovery. Within two years, to his neurologist's amazement, he had regained full freedom of movement and returned to an active life — though he would suffer chronic back pain for the rest of his days.

Age 33

Catastrophic accident leaves Mike permanently disabled

Year 1

Unable to lift hands above waist, requires assistance walking

Year 2

Remarkable recovery — regains full mobility despite chronic pain

Ongoing

Returns to active life, never letting pain stop him from helping others

The Path to Homeschooling

When Mike's daughter came home in tears from 4th grade, upset by disruptive classmates who prevented learning, Mike and his wife made the difficult decision to homeschool. This choice proved so successful that they continued with all three children, all of whom eventually earned scholarships to college.

Mike's involvement in the homeschooling community — while overwhelmingly positive — would inadvertently expose him to individuals from all walks of life seeking guidance, including those with complex personal and legal questions.

Personal Struggles Behind Closed Doors

Despite his public success, Mike's marriage faced severe challenges rooted in his wife's traumatic upbringing. Coming from extreme poverty in Bluefield, West Virginia, she had been raised with the belief that sex was sinful without exception. This created profound psychological distress throughout their relationship.

                    The Hidden Crisis: Mike's wife fell into depression after their wedding because "all her friends now knew she wasn't a virgin." Years later, when they had children, she experienced an even more severe depression because "now even strangers knew she wasn't a virgin." For four years, she repeatedly told Mike he needed to "quietly go find sexual relief with someone else" while refusing to seek counseling.
                

Mike fought against this suggestion for years, desperately trying to convince his wife to attend therapy with him. When he finally succumbed to her persistent demands, his first two encounters with other partners ended without sexual contact because he couldn't bring himself to follow through. This marital crisis would become the foundation of his legal troubles.

The Fatal Misunderstanding

Mike's legal misunderstanding began when an 18-year-old male friend of his came to him with a serious question. This young man was concerned about the legality of his relationship with his 16-year-old girlfriend. Having never faced legal issues himself, Mike did what any reasonable person would do — he researched Delaware law.

The Critical Discovery: After finding conflicting information online about Delaware's age of consent (some sources said 16, others 18), Mike went directly to the Delaware Code. In Title 11, Statute 761, he found: "A child who has not yet reached that child's sixteenth birthday is deemed unable to consent to a sexual act with a person more than 4 years older than said child."

The subsequent statute (762) reinforced this interpretation by discussing legal implications "whenever... the criminality of conduct or the degree of the offense depends on whether the person has reached that person's sixteenth birthday." Based on this clear statutory language, Mike reasonably concluded that the age of consent in Delaware was 16 years old — the same as in all surrounding states.

                    The Tragic Irony: Mike's mistake was simple — he read and believed what the law book said. Wouldn't you have reached the same conclusion? The very statute that defined consent seemed to clearly establish 16 as the age of consent, yet this interpretation would later destroy his life.
                

Reluctant Counselor, Devastating Consequences

Mike's reputation as a compassionate counselor led to another request for help. A family friend begged him to speak with her son, who was determined to drop out of school. The young man was struggling with his identity as a gay teenager, terrified that his strict religious father would "kill him" if he found out — fears so intense that he had attempted suicide at age 15.

Mike's intervention was successful. The young man gained renewed vigor and pursued his college degree. But then the boy's mother made another plea: would Mike talk to her daughter, who was clinically depressed and creating disturbing artwork filled with coffins and death?

Initial Success, Hidden Danger: Mike initially refused, saying he wasn't qualified to help the girl. But after persistent begging from both the mother and his own wife, he reluctantly agreed. The results seemed miraculous — within months, the girl transformed from creating dark, death-themed artwork to beautiful, colorful pictures of flowers and cheerful scenes.

What Mike didn't know was that the girl had stolen explicit Japanese comics from her brother's collection and had become obsessed with the sexual scenarios depicted in them. This obsession would later drive her to pursue Mike with relentless determination.

The Incident That Changed Everything

For six months, the girl aggressively pursued Mike, telling him "I want to have sex with you", that she wanted him to "teach her all about sex" and even be his "sex slave." Mike repeatedly rejected her advances, telling her it wasn't appropriate and that he wasn't interested.

The breaking point came when Mike's wife left on vacation with her mother and the children, despite his request to wait just one week so he could join them. Alone and in despair, Mike finally succumbed to the girl's persistent advances.

The Fateful Decision: Mike had attended the girl's 16th birthday party years earlier, so he believed she was of legal age according to his research of Delaware law. During their encounter, she insisted on filming it and taking pictures "as her gift," even showing a fake ID and lying about being 18 years old. However, after they were both undressed, Mike decided not to proceed with sexual contact, and they parted without hurt feelings.

The incident only came to light later when the girl mentioned it while under the influence of drugs, leading to Mike's arrest and the destruction of his life.

The Prosecutorial Nightmare

Mike was charged with three separate crimes, each based on actions he believed were legal at the time:

Charge 1: Sex with a Minor

Despite the girl's fake ID, her claim to be 18, her statement to police that everything was "willing and consensual," and Delaware law books that seemed to establish 16 as the age of consent, Mike was charged as a sex offender with no defense allowed.

Charge 2: Sex with a Mentee

Because the girl's mother and Mike's wife had pressed him to counsel her (despite his initial refusal), he was labeled a "mentor" and charged under that statute.

Charge 3: Child Pornography

The girl had insisted on creating the video and pictures "as her gift" to Mike, but he was charged with child pornography for possessing them.

Coerced into a Plea

Mike's lawyer showed him a letter from the prosecutor's office with a chilling threat: if he didn't accept a plea deal, they would charge him with three counts of kidnapping, each carrying a 25-year minimum sentence. Mike had no understanding of how his actions could constitute kidnapping, but his lawyer assured him the threat was real.

                    The Impossible Choice: Faced with the prospect of 75 years in prison for charges he couldn't understand, Mike took the plea deal to get back to his family as soon as possible. He is now a registered sex offender, despite believing he had followed the law and despite the lack of any actual sexual contact.
                

The Broader Injustice

Mike's case reveals several layers of systemic problems:

16 Age of Consent in All Surrounding States

18 Actual Age of Consent in Delaware

32 States Where He Could Appeal His Registration

Delaware stands alone among its neighbors in having an age of consent of 18, yet its legal code contains language that reasonably suggests 16 is the threshold. Mike has recently discovered that by moving to one of the 32 states with an age of consent of 16, he can petition the courts to be removed from the sex offender registry.

The Consequences of Good Faith

This is the story of a man who dedicated his life to helping others, overcame tremendous personal challenges, and maintained the highest ethical standards — only to find that the very legal system he respected and tried to follow would become the instrument of his downfall.

Mike's case highlights fundamental problems in our legal system: when statutory language is ambiguous or misleading, innocent people who act in good faith can find themselves criminally liable for misunderstanding laws that even legal experts find confusing. When prosecutors can threaten impossible sentences to coerce plea deals, justice becomes a casualty of expedience.

Reader Comments

What people are saying about Mike's story...

"It's a shame that this poor man's life is ruined."

- Eileen M.

"Your story brought me to tears! This is unfair, and should never have happened!"

- Andrea B.

"When will we get real justice? Mike's life is ruined, yet real criminals walk the streets."

- Mike G.

Note: The name "Mike" is a pseudonym used to protect the individual's identity. The legal citation referenced (Delaware Code Title 11, Section 761) remains accessible for verification at: https://delcode.delaware.gov/title11/c005/sc02/index.html#761. This story serves as a reminder that good intentions and even careful legal research do not always protect individuals from the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of our legal system.

A Story of Injustice