Mark Foley Likely to Get Away With Sexual Harassment of Minors

Posted by Adam Howard at 1:00 PM on September 14, 2007.

Way to go Florida! Because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has dragged its feet for months on investigating Mark Foley and his numerous attempts to seduce underage boys of the course of several years, the disgraced former congressman will likely get off scott free.

According to ABC:

"Barring any extraordinary circumstances, it is very unlikely for charges to be filed in a case once the statute of limitations has run its course," said Aya Gruber, a former federal public defender and professor of law at Florida International University.

Federal officials turned the case over to Florida after concluding that Foley did not engage in any actual sexual contact until the former pages had turned 18, and had therefore not violated federal law. Washington, D.C. law defines the age of consent as 16.

Under Florida law, it is a third-degree felony both to use the Internet "to seduce, solicit, lure or entice" a minor "to commit any illegal act...relating to lewdness and indecent exposure" and to transmit any "information or data that is harmful to minors...via electronic mail," which includes instant messages.

Of course lawyers for the House of Representatives did play a significant role is screwing up this case:

The statute of limitations hasn't been the only hurdle in the Florida investigation. Last month, lawyers for the U.S. House of Representatives denied Florida law enforcement officials access to the former congressman's computers, as previously reported on the Blotter on ABCNews.com. Investigators believe Foley may have used the machines to send illegal sexually explicit message to former congressional pages.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman told ABC News at the time that House lawyers denied their request to turn over the computers, citing the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, which protects congressional papers. The House claims Foley's computers are the equivalent of congressional papers, and that only Foley can waive his congressional privilege and grant access to them.

At the time, the spokeswoman, Kristen Perezluha, had said the department was working with Foley's lawyers to obtain access to the computers. This week she would neither confirm nor deny they had been granted access.

Perezluha did tell ABC News the investigation was almost done. "They (investigators) hope to have it wrapped up soon," she said.

Tagged as: foley, florida, foley page scandal, justice sagging pants

Adam Howard is the editor of PEEK.