OMAHA, Neb.—The attorney for a Nebraska middle school teacher who fled to Mexico with an illegal immigrant student amid a sex scandal says the woman was guilty of poor judgment and maybe nothing else.
James Martin Davis of Omaha also said the boy with whom Kelsey Peterson fled might not be as young as 13, as authorities allege.
“The information I have is that he might be older,” said Davis, declining to elaborate.
“The kid is sophisticated. He shaves, he has a mustache. I’ll be requesting his original birth certificate from the Mexican consulate. I think he had one here, but I don’t know if anyone vouched for its authenticity.”
The boy and the 25-year-old Peterson fled Lexington on Oct. 26 and were found in a mall parking lot in the border town of Mexicali, Mexico, on Nov. 2.
Peterson faces a federal charge of crossing state lines to have sex with a minor, which is punishable by 10 years to life in prison and a $250,000 fine. A judge denied bail for her last week.
She also has been charged in Dawson County with felony counts of kidnapping and child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Peterson was recently moved from a federal detention facility in El Centro, Calif., to one in San Diego, Davis said. She’ll be returned to Nebraska in seven to 21 days, Davis said.
“She’s anxious to come back,” Davis said. “She understands what she did, and that she didn’t exercise the best judgment in leaving. I’m not trying to exonerate Kelsey. I want to make sure she’s treated fairly.”
The boy remains in Mexico because of his immigration status but might be able to return to Nebraska, at least temporarily, if he’s granted a “U” visa. The visas are used to encourage illegal immigrants to report crimes against them.
“To prove their case, they have to have him come back here,” Davis said. “They’re going to have to cut him some deal to have him testify. In exchange for the promise of bringing him into the country, he may be anxious to please them and do what they say.”
Peterson has been inaccurately portrayed as a predator and the boy as an innocent victim, Davis said.
The boy once was a resident of a ranch for troubled youth, and he allegedly had gang ties.
“It’s my understanding he was grooming her and she wasn’t grooming him,” Davis said. “He was an active participant. If this happened, he didn’t lose his virginity to Kelsey Peterson.
“I don’t subscribe to ‘Victimology 101’ that says every person under 16 is a true victim. I see true victims every day. This young man is no victim.”
Davis said the federal charge against Peterson shouldn’t stand because she did flee to Mexico to have sex.
“She went to Mexico to flee what was happening in Lexington,” said Davis, referring to her belief that school officials were about to discipline her for having an improper relationship with the boy.
The state’s kidnapping charge also shouldn’t stand, he said, because he was not abducted. The boy went willingly, Davis said.
The boy said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that he planned to visit family in Mexico.
In letters, the boy called Peterson his “Baby Gurl” and said their relationship was “just not about the sex but that it was pretty good,” according to the court documents.
Davis declined to say whether Peterson told him she and the boy had sex. He noted that she would not be guilty of statutory rape in Nebraska if it’s shown that the boy is 16 or older.
“If he’s over 16, there isn’t any crime,” he said.
