(Facebook)
Kate Hunt was arrested in February on two felony counts for an alleged sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. At the time of the alleged relationship, Hunt was an 18-year-old senior at Sebastian River High School in Florida, while the victim was a freshman. She has been offered two different plea deals. The first she turned down, and the second she violated the terms of and was subsequently revoked. Hunt will now remain in custody until her trial, which does not currently have a set date.
Here are the top ten facts you need to know about Kate Hunt.
1. Hunt Had Her Plea Deal Revoked for Violating Terms — 20,000 Times
(Facebook)
Just days after being offered a plea deal, prosecutors allege that Hunt put an iPod Touch in the victim’s school locker so that they could continue to communicate, as reported by ViralRead. The plea deal strictly and directly forbids this. Between this past Friday and the day of her arrest, Hunt has exchanged 20,000 texts and messages with the victim, including nude photos and videos of her committing sexual acts. Additionally, they used the device to “coordinated secret meetings” where they would meet at “a remote location where they would have intimate contact.”
“Text messages and communications were taking place between Kate Hunt and the child victim,” Thom Raulen of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office told NBC-12.
Among those messages is alleged that one of them sent from hunt to the child victim reads, “keep the (explicative) quiet.”
In hunt’s appearance in court today, Judge Robert Pegg ruled that the accused will be jailed until the her trial without access to wi-fi eletronics. The date for the trial has yet to be set. New evidence presented today alleges that the girls’ relationship had been ongoing since the victim was 12, making the accused 16-year-old.
2. The Plea Deal Offered On August 14 Would Have Kept Her Out of Prison
(YouTube)
The plea deal would have allowed Hunt to avoid serving jail time and would prevent her from being put on the sex offenders’ register, according to the Daily Mail. Here is the document of the deal:
3. Hunt Turned Down the First Plea Deal in May
Sebastian High School student Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea deal for charges of improper relationship with 14-year-old girlfriend
— CBS12 (@CBS12) May 24, 2013
In May, Hunt was offered her first plea deal, which would result in her being charged with child abuse, two years of house arrest and one year of probation. It would also have her labelled as a sex offender, according to WPTV.
4. Kate Hunt’s Mother Also May Face Charges
(YouTube)
Leading up to the repealing of Kate’s plea deal, the defendant’s mother, Kelley Hunt-Smith, told her daughter to “delete EVERYTHING,” encouraging her to destroy evidence. There is currently no word on whether the prosecution will seek charges against her.
5. The Couple Were Found Out by the School Basketball Coach
(YouTube)
Hunt and the alleged victim were both on the school’s varsity. They became close friends, and later began a secret relationship. Eventually, they were found out by the school basketball coach, who then called the victim’s parents. Kate was then kicked off the team. According to the change.org petition, the victim’s parents worked with police to trap Kate and their daughter into providing evidence for the claim. A phone conversation was recorded in which the girls discussed their relationship. Kate was soon arrested and charged with two counts of felony lewd and lascivious battery on a child.
6. Kate Hunt Is a Smart And Well-Liked High School Senior
(YouTube)
Kate Hunt is a senior at Sebastian River High School in Florida, where she was very active in the student body. Hunt was an active cheerleader and a varsity athlete. In her spare him, she was a camp counselor, cheering coach, and a medical assistant training to join the nursing program at Valencia College after graduation. Hung was also very well liked at the school, where she was voted the student with “Most School Spirit” by her peers.
7. Kate Hunt’s Parents Think Her Girlfriend’s Parents Waited for Her to Turn 18 Before Pressing Charges
(YouTube)
Kate Hunt’s parents released a statement on Facebook supporting their daughter and alleging that their daughter’s girlfriend’s parents waiting until Kate was 18 before pressing charges against her. They believe that the girl’s parents knew well before that point, according to the Huffington Post.
“These people never came to us as parents, never tried to speak to us … and tell us they had a problem with the girls dating,” Kaitlyn Hunt’s mother, Kelley Hunt-Smith, wrote. “They were out to destroy my daughter. [They] feel like my daughter ‘made’ their daughter gay.”
The victim’s family denies the allegations.
8. Florida’s Age of Consent is 16
(YouTube)
Although Hunt claims that the relationship was consensual, Florida law prevents the two from having a legal relationship. In Florida, a person under the age of 16 is not able to give legal consent for sex, reports The Daily Mail. The state does carry close in age exemptions, which permits a 23-year-old to engage in legal sexual activity with a minor aged 16 or 17, according to Wikipedia.
9. Hunt’s Lawyer Filed a Request for the Judge to Remove Himself From the Case in June
(Getty)
Hunt’s lawyer, Julia Graves asked for Circuit Judge Robert Pegg to step down from the case after she claims that the judge did not notify her about his chosen court date, which was pushed in front of 200 other pending criminal charges, according to WatermarkOnline. Graves’ motion was filed on June 18 and claimed that Judge Pegg has a bias against her client because of the fact that she’s gay.
10. There Is a Social Media Campaign Calling for Hunt’s Freedom
(http://www.freekate.net/)
A change.org petition in support of Hunt has been created, currently sitting with more than 319,000 signatures. The petition is addressed to Assistant Florida State Attorney Brian Workman.
There is also a Facebook page and a website dedicated to spreading awareness about Kate and her current legal battle.
Since details of the case have gone public, many of Hunt’s original supporters have left her camp, criticizing her for breaking the law.
Even LGBT supporters are turning on Hunt, including T.J. Askren, a known lesbian writer who runs a blog called redtreehouse.net.
“Kaitlyn Hunt is not lesbian hero. She is not a gay martyr. She’s an 18 year old who made a bad, perhaps uninformed, decision. Getting in trouble for finger f*cking your underage girlfriend in the school bathroom is not a noble cause,” wrote Askren.