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Teen to serve probation in college, jail on summer vacation

The ex-Golden Gate High School football player went to an Estates home, where a boy was offering his sister to friends for sex

Thursday, March 20, 2008

A boy was "pimping out" his sister to friends at Golden Gate High School. The 14-year-old girl even had photos on Facebook. The boys would receive a call, set up an appointment and show up at the girl's Golden Gate Estates home, where her brother led them to her bedroom.

There, the 14-year-old girl would perform oral sex and intercourse on one or more boys at a time. It was the siblings' form of rebellion against strict Haitian parents.

That's the account provided by arrest reports and those involved in the case of a former Golden Gate High School defensive end, 18-year-old Gir Joseph, who came to the home after his friend arranged for him to have sex with the girl, who looked older than her age.

"I don't think he had any idea what age she was," Assistant Public Defender Shawn Nagle said. "He got a call saying, ‘Come on over.' It was a completely consensual situation. He didn't know the girl. She had a Facebook site on the internet with photos."

This week, Joseph pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious battery, a second-degree felony and Circuit Judge Elizabeth Krier adjudicated him guilty and sentenced him to six years of sex-offender probation, which requires him to wear an ankle tracking device.

Joseph, who was playing on the Wesley College football team in Delaware, is now a student at Tallahassee Community College. He played two seasons for Golden Gate after transferring from Naples High School.

Under the plea agreement negotiated by Assistant State Attorney Christopher Klink and Nagle, Joseph will serve his probation in Tallahassee.

"Do you understand you're going to have to give your class schedule to your probation officer," Klink asked.

"Yes sir," Joseph replied.

And he'll serve 12 months in the Collier County jail.

"You're going to serve that during the school summer vacation months," Krier told him, adding that he must show up at the jail seven days after classes end and can leave seven days before he returns to college.

If he leaves college, Krier warned, he must return here to finish his jail term.

Joseph entered his plea as the girl and her parents sat in court, where her guardian ad litem, who represented her during court proceedings, also watched. Krier warned Joseph not to contact the teen in any way, including e-mail — "even if you want to send a letter of condolence or apology."

The felony, considered statutory rape, is punishable by a maximum of 15 years in a state prison, but Joseph was sentenced to probation due to the lack of a criminal record and because the sex was consensual. But he was deemed a sex offender, meaning his photo will be listed on a public internet database of sex offenders and he'll be required to register his address wherever he lives.

Joseph declined comment as he left with his mother, except to say he left college and the football team because of the case. The teen and her parents immediately went to a conference room with Klink and the guardian, who declined comment earlier, saying the family didn't want to talk.

Nagle, however, said Joseph did the right thing and returned to Naples when he got a call that the girl might be pregnant and saying her father wanted to speak to him; she wasn't, but he was arrested when he arrived. He told deputies on May 22: "I wanted to know if she was pregnant. If the baby is mine, I want to know."

Nagle said his client did the right thing. "It's a sad situation," Nagle said after the plea. "He did wrong, he knew he did wrong, but he stepped up and did the right thing."

Arrest reports say the girl's mother called Collier County Sheriff's deputies on May 22 to say she'd returned home 11 days earlier and Joseph was running out her back door. She wanted him prosecuted because he was 18 and had sex with her 14-year-old daughter.

Joseph told Cpl. Adam Marchesiello he immediately came to the home after a friend called to say the girl's father wanted to speak with him. Marchesiello's report provides this account:

He was brought to the home by a friend, who told him he had a "girl that is down," meaning she was providing sex. When they arrived, the girl's brother led them to her room and Joseph knocked on the door, opened it, and saw another boy receiving oral sex. The girl told him to come in and he got on the bed with the couple, removed his pants and she performed oral sex on him. After a few minutes, they all switched places and the girl then had intercourse with him while providing oral sex to the other boy.

But it ended abruptly as the girl warned, "My mother's home." The girl's brother directed the threesome out the back door and the boys fled.

No other adults were charged, but some may have been juveniles and those records are not public.

Source: Naples News