The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Online Evidence Shows Kaitlyn Hunt Contacted Victim After Sex Arrest

Posted on | June 11, 2013 | 63 Comments

At least twice in May, accused sex offender Kaitlyn Ashley Hunt used her Twitter account to “favorite” messages by the girl she has admitted having sex with when the younger girl was only 14.

The “favorites,” which occurred just days before Hunt’s family launched a high-profile “Free Kate” campaign to persuade Florida authorities to end the prosecution of felony charges against the 18-year-old, could violate customary legal requirements that forbid criminal suspects released on bond from contacting their victims.

On Sunday, May 12, Kaitlyn Hunt clicked “favorite” on two messages by the younger girl, who turned 15 in April, more than two months after Hunt was arrested and charged with two felony counts under Florida law that establishes the legal age of consent at 16. While a Twitter “favorite” is visible to the person who sent the original message, it does not show up on the timeline of the person who “favorites” the message, so that the younger girl could see Kaitlyn’s “favorite,” but no one monitoring Kaitlyn’s account would have noticed it. Therefore, these “favorites” — shortly before 7 p.m. May 12 — may have been attempts by Hunt to send a signal to the younger girl. Click on any of the images to see them larger:


Here is a close-up of Hunt’s “favorite” on the second message, enlarged to show it was sent from Hunt’s account (click on image to see larger):

Hunt’s Twitter account (@katebbbyy) was deleted after her attorney hired a public-relations firm. Critics of the “Free Kate” campaign,  had called attention to content on the accused teenager’s Twitter account that contradicted the claims of her defenders that Hunt was a “model citizen” prior to her arrest on charges of lewd and lascivious battery on a child. The Hunt family have claimed their daughter is a victim of “hate and bigotry” of the younger girl’s parents who objected to a “mutual consenting relationship” between the girls. In a May 17 Facebook message that started the “Free Kate” campaign, Kaitlyn’s mother Kelley Hunt Smith named the younger girl’s parents nine times, saying they were “trying to ruin my daughters life” because they are “bigoted, religious zealots.”

In an online petition, also published May 17, Hunt’s father claimed that sex between his daughter and the younger girl occurred when Kaitlyn was 17 and her victim was 15. In fact, Kaitlyn turned 18 before she ever met the younger girl, who was 14 throughout their sexual involvement, which began in December when they had sex in a restroom toilet stall at Sebastian River High School, where Hunt was a senior and the 14-year-old was a freshman.

In the online petition, which garnered more than 300,00 signatures, Steve Hunt described his daughter’s involvement with the 14-year-old as an innocent “high school romance,” and did not mention an incident in January where the younger girl ran away from home to have sex with his Kaitlyn. The parents of the 14-year-old told a local TV station that they feared their daughter had been abducted, but later learned she had been picked up by Kaitlyn and taken to the Hunt family’s home for a night of sex. The younger girl’s parents said they twice asked Kaitlyn to leave their daughter alone, and only in February reported the case to authorities.

When more facts about the case became public — the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office released the arrest affidavit on May 20 — some of Hunt’s original supporters repudiated the “Free Kate” campaign. On May 23, Joan McCarter of the progressive Daily Kos site said that “the initial dishonesty of Hunt’s parents” made the story “problematic,” and deactivated a Daily Kos petition on Hunt’s behalf.

However, corrections of facts in the case came too late to spare the younger girl and her parents from harassment by Hunt’s online supporters, who “doxed” the victim’s family May 19-20 — publicizing their home and workplace addresses and phone numbers — after denouncing them as a “f–king bunch of bible-thumpers.”

Evidence that Kaitlyn Hunt was using the Twitter “favorite” tool to communicate online with the younger girl would appear to violate the usual terms under which accused criminals are released on bond. Records at the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office show Hunt was released on $2,500 bond the day she was arrested, Feb. 16. Violation of terms of release can result in revocation of bond.

On May 24, Hunt rejected a plea bargain offer by prosecutors that would have permitted her to avoid prison. Her attorney has asked for a postponement of court trial in the case.

 

Category: Kaitlyn Hunt

Comments

63 Responses to “Online Evidence Shows Kaitlyn Hunt Contacted Victim After Sex Arrest”

  1. Martyy Reeh
    June 17th, 2013 @ 2:45 pm

    funny you see to be saying the same thing about me

  2. RhymesWithRight
    June 17th, 2013 @ 2:48 pm

    Not at all — you are welcome to be involved. That’s the great thing about America. I’m just noting that your conduct is what is generally called “trolling” — hence the billygoat comments

  3. RhymesWithRight
    June 17th, 2013 @ 2:50 pm

    But KHunt’s victim was not 16 — she was 14. And you are right — the prosecutor did have other options, but an unrepentant defendant who refused to break off the relationship at the parent’s quest and who actually engaged in custodial interference by helping the victim run away is not the sort or defendant who gets leniency in any jurisdiction.

  4. Martyy Reeh
    June 17th, 2013 @ 2:53 pm

    so if disagreeing with what I feel is obviously wrong and meanspirited and saying so is “trolling”, just call me nannygoat because I have no inten

  5. RhymesWithRight
    June 17th, 2013 @ 2:58 pm

    By the way — if 18 year olds are adults “by label only”, I presume you would agree that we need to take away their right to vote.

  6. RhymesWithRight
    June 17th, 2013 @ 2:59 pm

    No — it is tone and attitude that makes you a troll.

  7. Guest
    June 17th, 2013 @ 2:59 pm

    But you are not a lawyer and this is not a courtroom…

  8. RhymesWithRight
    June 17th, 2013 @ 3:02 pm

    But you are not a lawyer and this is not a courtroom, so I can answer the questions how I choose. When you get subpoena power on Stacy’s blog, then I’ll comply with your demand that I answer as you want.

  9. Martyy Reeh
    June 17th, 2013 @ 3:04 pm

    might not bad thing, as well as not admitting them into the military

  10. Martyy Reeh
    June 17th, 2013 @ 3:06 pm

    this is not a courtroom buor a trial

  11. Martyy Reeh
    June 17th, 2013 @ 3:07 pm

    check your own attitude before you complain about mine.

  12. Jerry Beckett
    June 17th, 2013 @ 3:44 pm

    I expect my children to obey the law. I would expect them to take responsibility for their actions should he/she fail to do so. If that includes having to go to jail, then that is what the child must do. This is not “throwing the child away”, but fulfilling my duty as a father to raise a child that understands that the law applies to everyone, including him/her.

    No parent wants to see their child go to jail. However, to make excuses for and lie about your child’s criminal behavior is to contribute to raising a moral monster.

  13. Brooklyn
    June 18th, 2013 @ 3:17 am

    Sooooo, Mr. McCain, if this is true, why hasn’s she been picked up yet? Ah, yes; another missed swing at a nail in the crucifixtion of this girl. I expect more out of you experienced Pharisees.