Right Side of the Rainbow

Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13-year-old boys from McMinnville, Oregon, are finally free.

Following their arrest in February, the two were initially denied contact with their parents, charged with felonies and brought to court in shackles. Cory and Ryan spent five days in jail, where they were reportedly strip searched four times.

Why? What dastardly thing did these boys do? Answer: They swatted some schoolmates on the butt.

Can you even picture it? Teenage boys engaged in inappropriate horseplay. Who the hell ever heard of that?

Evidently, talk radio host Dennis Prager has heard of it. He’s now leading the drive to remove Bradley Berry, the district attorney who Nifonged the case:

When he finally explained himself under pressure from the media, Berry told The Oregonian, “From our perspective and the perspective of the victims, this was not just horseplay.” In fact, it turns out that the girls involved did regard it as horseplay. And they claimed from virtually the outset that they had been pressured into making a case against the boys.

The Oregonian has reported that listeners to my radio show across America provided nearly all of the more than $40,000 for defense costs for the two boys. But they have done more. They have also sent letters to the two boys assuring them it is not they, but Bradley Berry, who acted perversely. One of the boys’ mothers, in tears, told me that these letters profoundly affected the boys, who were made to appear as perverts and sexual predators and who could have been placed on sexual predator lists for the rest of their lives. My listeners also reported that when they phoned the office of Bradley Berry, they were told that “there was more to the story,” that more evidence would be forthcoming.

That was a lie. Berry had nothing more to reveal and did in fact drop the felony charges. The boys were then charged ‘only’ with sexual harassment.

Yesterday, in exchange for an apology from the boys, Circuit Judge John L. Collins dismissed even the lesser charges. “Now,” writes Prager, “we will focus our attention on removing Bradley Berry from office.”

A democracy cannot long survive the contempt more and more Americans feel for American law.

A system that treats juvenile horseplay as felony sex abuse is not just contemptible; it’s unhinged.

But speaking of abuse, please note: While isolated from their parents and under the custody and control of Oregon officials, two 13-year-old boys with no history of violence or drug dependence were reportedly strip searched four times in five days. Boys. Strip searched. Four times. In five days. What exactly were these officials looking for — or at? Hmm?

There are days — today is one of them — when I wish I had gone to law school instead of nursing school and had signed on with these folk. I’d be on the next plane out.