Bottom-slapping boys free after girls intervene

McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Just a few months ago, two middle school boys faced possible prison time and the prospect of being placed on a sex offender registry for life for slapping girls on their bottoms and touching their breasts in the school hallway.

Following a public outcry, and at the request of the girls, the case against the two 13-year-old boys was dismissed Monday after drawing national attention.

Everybody involved, including the judge, appeared relieved.

“I believe this is a just outcome,” Yamhill County Circuit Judge John Collins said.

The case against Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison had started a debate over whether such behavior should have been handled by school administrators – or by police and prosecutors.

Last February, an aide at Patton Middle School reported the boys to the principal after they were seen swatting girls on the bottom. A police officer assigned to patrol schools decided to arrest the boys, and the Yamhill County district attorney’s office filed felony sex abuse charges.

The girls later pleaded with prosecutors to drop charges.

“The way it was handled was not right,” one of the girls said in a statement read in court by Debra Markham, the deputy district attorney who handled the case.

“I just want to say to both Cory and Ryan that I forgive you both 100 percent!” another girl said in a statement read by Markham. She added: “I would like to say to the court and to the adult males at my school that I don’t believe this situation was handled correctly. I don’t consider myself to be the victim of a crime.”

Nevertheless, Collins reprimanded the boys.

“Make no mistake, the behavior here was not OK,” Collins told them.

But the judge pointed out that both boys “have wanted to apologize” and that he believed they both have “good parents.”

“Sincere remorse can be a powerful teacher,” Collins said.

Markham defended the way the district attorney’s office handled the case, but said she also was satisfied with the outcome.

“I think it’s important that children feel that they can be safe within their schools,” she said.

She noted that one of the girls said that the behavior was becoming a problem because girls were warned by boys that Fridays were “slap ass day.”

The boys spent five days in juvenile detention in February and had been suspended from class pending the outcome of the case.

The boys, apparently inspired by the movie “Jackass,” were accused of swatting girls on the bottom, grabbing breasts and teaming up to “dry hump” girls.

Attorneys for the girls and the boys agreed to an out-of-court settlement for misdemeanor charges. No details were released.

“We were just messing around,” Cory said. “We were just trying to be funny. But we didn’t think.”