In Your Face News Service
Pasco, WA - 16 Jun 97
IN A CASE reminiscent of Sean O'Neill, Christopher Wheatley, a 20-year-old transexual man, has been convicted of 3rd degree rape in Franklin County Superior Court for having sex with a 15-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison on April 29th. A local newspaper reported that the 15-year-old told police she believed Wheatley was a male and didn't realize he was using a strap-on penis until they had had sex several times. Seeing the newspaper story, another 15-year-old girl came forward to make similar allegations. Wheatley is currently imprisoned in Pasco awaiting prosecution on the second charge. Members of the local Washington State transgender community and the nationwide male transexual community have issued appeals for support. Inquiries can be addressed to Tonye Barreto-Neto, (813)752-9226, or TBHawk@aol.com. Wheatley, who began transitioning 2 years ago, has been taking hormones and says he intends to seek sexual reassignment surgery. Transactivists have questioned whether Wheatley is receiving adequate legal representation because he pled guilty in the first case and his new lawyer, Public Defender Daniel Arnold, has refused to acknowledge Wheatley's transexualism, maintaining that his client is in denial. In the case of Sean O'Neill, a Colorado Springs District Attorney charged him with multiple counts of rape and pedophilia for sexual encounters with two underage girls -- both were teenagers -- while Mr. O'Neill was 19. O'Neill's attorneys advised him to plead guilty after the DA stacked the charges so that he faced up to 40 years in prison. However, they successfully made his transexual status an issue at the sentencing, and he was later sentenced to only 90 days in the local jail.
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