Color Commentator for Basketball's Orlando Magic Accused of Molesting Teen

[CShine]

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The television color analyst for the Orlando Magic basketball team has been arrested on charges that he molested a 14-year-old girl. Jack Givens, 47, was released on $25,000 bail, hours after deputies arrested him at his home late Monday on charges of sexual battery and lewd molestation.

He denied that he molested the teen. "Nothing happened. My character and my reputation speak for itself," he told reporters Tuesday.

An arrest affidavit said the alleged incidents occurred in a swimming pool and a bedroom at the girl's home, where Givens had gone for a personal basketball coaching session. They knew each other from a youth basketball league, where she was a player and he was a coach for another team. According to the affidavit, detectives monitored a phone conversation between the girl and Givens a week after the alleged battery. The affidavit said Givens told the girl: "Whatever I did that was wrong ... in your mind, I'm very, very sorry ... This is very serious so we might just need to talk to your parents about it."

Magic spokesman Joel Glass said the team wouldn't comment on the arrest. Given has worked as a broadcaster for Turner Sports, NBC Sports and ESPN. He and his wife have a teenage son and daughter.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBFVOPJ2WD.html

[Heddi]

1. well there's a post in the lounge

currently where some people are aruging that a 14 year old isn't a child, and someone who has sex with a 14 year old isn't a pedophile.

Some people in that thread also go as far as to say that some 14 year olds would do ANYTHING to get laid by someone older.

So I just sit here and wait for the child-rape appologists and pedophile-embracers to descend upon this thread and suggest that the young girl, if in fact this story is true, is just looking for a little bit of mature ding-dong and all of her friends are jealous as hell because she got to bang a super-duper famous person.

I wonder if this sports-caster is "hot" or "smokin"---which, of course, would SEAL the deal as far as this young girl being quote molested unquote. Again, we all know what little sluts teenagers are---anything to get banged.

And of course, the appologists for child rape will say that this girl will be okay, and that she isn't going to be distressed for the rest of her days, and that there's no need to get on with her life or have counseling b/c there's nothing amiss here. Just a young girl who got in the way of a horny man. Believe it or not, there are horny people, and there's nothing we can do about it :eyes: :grr: :mad: :puke:

[JayS]

2. Since this is a young girl, I doubt you will find much sympathy...

...for the guy from anyone.

[Mountainman]

4. It's still illegal if the girl instigated it.

It is illegal to have sex with a minor no matter if she was willing or not.

[justjones]

6. WTF?! !?

Anyone who thinks a 14 year old is not a "child" and has the mental and emotional capacity to agree to have sex with an adult is someone who should never be allowed to go near children at all.

[lazarus]

8. I had sex at 15

Guess I grew way the hell up in a few months, eh?

A few years ago, I had a 14 year old girl coming on to me, to the point of stalking. I didn't even know she was 14, I thought she was 18 or 19, so I flirted a bit, at the beginning. (She was a friend of ours, through a group we participated in.) When I found out her age, I put a stop to it, from my end. She kept pursuing me. Then decided to tell people we actually had done something.

Damned near broke up my marriage, and the accusations were eventually a part of the divorce that did come years later.

Now, how many young men (I was only 22 at the time) would have gone ahead and done something with her? She was physically apparently 18 or older. Emotionally, she behaved, at first, as if she was an adult, and actually more maturely than many adult women I've known.

This is totally different from the case in the OP, both here and in the Lounge. But I just want to point out that there are 14 year olds out there who are not "children".

A few years ago, there was a bad spell of teenage girls having sex with boyfriends who happened to be 18, then turning them in to the cops if the boyfriend broke up with them. I guess all those girls were just children, too?

There's a difference between illegal and immoral. This is a very fuzzy area that has to take into account age differences, individual maturity, and relationship. Where's the coercion? Who's got the power? These things need to be taken into consideration.

[justjones]

13. I should have qualified my statement....

I had sex when I was 15 as well. Even though the guy was 19, I don't think he should have been charged with "statutory rape" because I wasn't coerced in any way. However, no matter what I was thinking back then (IF I was even thinking), I still was a child.

I think a whole lot of men would have taken advantage of the situation you were in and I commend you for taking the lead from the *right* brain. All I'm saying is something that you obviously agree with since when you found out the girl's age you immediately backed off, and that is no matter how the girl looked or behaved, she was still a child.

But perhaps you only backed off because of the potential legal ramifications of pursuing this girl further. You can probably guess what I think about that, but I'm not here to judge you, I'm just glad at least one law is doing what it is designed to do, which is to discourage behavior that can potentially harm the girl in the long run (i.e., teenage pregnancy). You can't even say that about death penalty laws because we all know it doesn't discourage murder.

I guess my main point is that I don't believe in the notion that 14 year old girls are not children no matter how physically developed they are or how mature they behave. When I hear an adult think otherwise, I'm hearing echoes of the same excuse molesters/rapists/pedophiles use when trying to justify their victimization of children or whoever's there target. But I'm not saying that everyone who doesn't think a 14 year old is a child is a molester, but considering a child's sexuality in an adult context is a little dangerous IMO.

It's all about the fuzzy area you are talking about. I didn't mean to come off so black and white. I actually agree with what you are saying about all the factors that have to be considered in each case.

[lazarus]

14. cool

I backed off for a variety of reasons, her age being the biggest one, of course. My being married was also the biggest one. :D

I think we are in agreement here, we just all have to be careful with the terminology we use when discussing the subject, so we don't fall into the binary black and white mode that's so easy to arrive at.

FWIW, I think the worst case of sexualising children comes from these horrid "beauty pageants" young girls are forced into. Think JonBenet Ramsey. Ick.

[LincolnMcGrath]

9. Read and posted in two threads myself

Never saw anything like that.





on edit sp

[uhhuh]

12. Kinda like this thread too

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1891551

Some seem to think that 14 year olds screwed by adults is sooo cool.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Is Jack Givens a Democrat? Is he political?

What does this story have to do with politics?

[kentuck]

5. Since when does LBN have to be about politics ??

Have the rules changed? Anyway, everything is political.

[jarab]

7. Assuming this is ...

the same Jack "Goose" Givens who was MVP of the Final Four for the champion KY Wildcats in the late 70s. (78?)
.....His goose could be cooked???....
...O...

[delete_bush]

10. Not a lot in the article, but his response

after the incident to the girl, suggesting a meeting with her parents, doesn't seem in character with someone who is guilty of a serious offense. Unless of course he was trying to shame and/or bribe them to keep it quiet?

It would seem to me that if he was guilty he would have cautioned the girl against telling her parents, not suggesting that they jointly speak with them.

[demgurl]

11. This is just wrong.

No matter what someone says, the law states it is illegal. Someone can argue anything they want about maturity or the way a girl looks. There is a reason we have laws in place.

And a young girl can throw herself at a man all she wants, but it is up to the man to resist. I do not care if a young girl has the body of the hottest playmate ever, she is still a child. A man has to think with his head and not in his nether regions. We are supposed to be above the other animals partially because we can think things through and are responsible for our actions. I think it is sad if a guy can not control his penis enough to resist a child.

I lost my virginity when I was quite young and I am not claiming to be ruined for life. I was also quite promiscuous and may have been in that little girls place at one point in time. I think I would have greatly benefited from some older guys having control of what is in their pants.

Whether people think it *should* be legal, it is not. I know girls can fool you, but not for that long. Is she living at home? What grade is she in? Is she driving yet? If she is at home, have you talked to her Mom and been invited over? Anyone who wants to put the clues together probably can.

[okieinpain]

15. my two cents. sex for a 14 yr old boy and a 22 yr old female is

different than a 14yr old girl and a 22yr old male. reading the post I thought that du had some weirdo's on board. but after reading the post about the tampa incident, all I can tell you is that was every 14yr old male dream. I've had a couple of attractive teachers when I was a 14yr old, and believe me if one of them had shown any interest I would have been ready to volunteer.

now for a 14yr old girl I would imagine that a lot of emotion would be involved. so if it was me being the older male, I would have avoided the situation. hell, I've avoided situation like that with 30yr old females because I didn't like their emotional state at the time.


edited to correct grammer

[JayS]

16. For comparison and contrast...

June 30, 2004, 7:07AM
Teacher accused of sex with student
Woman faces charges in two counties
Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2654189



TAMPA, Fla. -- A 23-year-old middle-school teacher was charged with having sex with a 14-year-old student in a classroom, at her apartment and, once, in a vehicle while the teen's 15-year-old cousin drove.

Detectives said that the cousins provided matching statements incriminating Debra Beasley Lafave and that the 14-year-old described Lafave's apartment and her tattoos and birthmarks.

Lafave, who teaches reading in the Tampa suburb of Temple Terrace, was arrested there last week on lewd and lascivious battery charges, accused of having sex with the teen earlier this month at her apartment and in a portable classroom at Greco Middle School.

She was out on bond on those charges when she turned herself in Monday in Marion County, about 80 miles north of Tampa, where the cousin lives. Marion County authorities say Lafave had sex with the student in the back of her sport utility vehicle while the cousin drove them around the Ocala area. There, she is charged with lewd and lascivious battery and exhibition. She was released on $25,000 bail.

*SNIP*

[okieinpain]

17. man there are some really nice pictures out there of her. poor

girl they have dug up her whole life.

http://mjmorningshow.com/morning_home.html