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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4778829,00.ht...
Marriage ruling a 'real shocker'
By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
June 16, 2006
A common-law marriage in Colorado between a 14-year-old boy and 12-
year-old girl is possible in the wake of an appellate court ruling
Thursday.
That's the potential fallout from a Colorado Court of Appeals decision
that overturned a lower court finding that 15 is too young for a girl
to enter into common-law union.
"This is a real shocker," said Stephen Harhai, a Denver attorney and
past chairman of the family law section of the Colorado Bar
Association. "Under this action, this means your 12-year-old can, with
whomever, say, 'I intend to be married to you,' and that's it,
(they're) married. That's a little shocking."
The decision by a three-judge panel reversed a Weld County case in
which a judge ruled that a 15- year-old girl was too young to consent
to a common-law marriage.
It does not affect state law regarding "statutory" or conventional
marriage in Colorado, which sets the minimum marriage age at 16 and
requires either parental or judicial approval for 16-year-olds and 17-
year-olds.
The Weld County case that sparked Thursday's decision involves a girl
known in legal documents as J.M.H., who started living with Willis Lee
Rouse in April 2002 when she was 14 and Rouse was 34.
Rouse is now a 38-year-old inmate at the Fremont Correctional
Facility, serving four years for stalking and escape. J.M.H. recently
turned 18.
Weld County Attorney Bruce T. Barker declined to discuss the original
case in detail because J.M.H. is still the subject of an ongoing
dependency and neglect action brought by the Weld County Department of
Human Services.
Thursday's appellate court ruling stopped short of firmly establishing
a minimum age for common-law unions. It noted, however, that Colorado
recognizes English common law, which legalizes such marriages at age
12 for girls and 14 for boys.
"Previously, Colorado law did not set an (minimum) age" for common-
law unions, Harhai said. "That's why this is a new precedent."
Harhai said that, while surprising, the appellate decision was not
logically or legally flawed and was in line with other established
Colorado law.
Therefore, said Harhai, it would likely require action by the state
legislature if Coloradans are uncomfortable with the result of
Thursday's ruling.
In fact, the ruling seemed to offer an "invitation" to legislative
correction, Harhai said, by including the phrase "in absence of a
statutory provision to the contrary."
In Rouse's appeal, he stated that he and J.M.H. began living together
in April 2002 and applied for an Adams County marriage license a year
later.
The girl achieved legal independence by April 2003, but her mother
consented to the marriage, according to the ruling, and went with her
daughter and Rouse to the county clerk's office to get a license.
A license was issued, but Weld County District Judge James Hartmann
granted a motion by the Weld County Department of Human Services to
invalidate the marriage. He ruled that those under age 16 must have
judicial approval for either common-law or ceremonial marriage.
The appellate court, however, agreed with Rouse that he could legally
marry J.M.H. It didn't conclude whether she and Rouse have a legal
marriage, returning the case to the trial judge to settle that
question.
Rouse is in prison in connection with a December 2002 arrest for
sexual assault on a child. Westminster police arrested him for
allegedly having sex with a girl who was living with him at the time,
a police report said.
The girl became pregnant, but told investigators she did not have sex
with Rouse and that the father of the child was someone else. Police
removed her from Rouse's home and returned her to her mother, and the
case was reported to Adams County Social Services, the report said.
According to court records, Rouse pleaded guilty to a stalking charge
in the case, and all sexual assault charges were dropped. He was
sentenced to four years.
Colorado is one of 10 states, plus the District of Columbia, that
acknowledge common-law marriage. Pennsylvania recently elected not to
recognize common-law marriages after Jan. 1, 2005.
"It appears that Colorado has adopted the common-law age of consent
for marriage as 14 for a male and 12 for a female, which existed under
English common law," the ruling stated. "Nevertheless, we need only
hold here that a 15-year-old female may enter into a valid common-law
marriage."
English common law is the traditional unwritten law of England, based
on custom and use, which began developing hundreds of years before the
founding of the United States.
brennanc@
RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2742 Staff writer Tillie
Fong contributed to this report.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/005073.php
Thursday :: Aug 4, 2005
Puppy Love Takes Precedence In Kansas Over Real Important Issues
by pessimist
Too young to marry?
It's a line not likely to land in the state's promotional brochure:
Come to Kansas, girls, where you can get hitched at age 12. Thanks to
a Falls City love affair that has raised the ire of Nebraska Attorney
General Jon Bruning, however, the marriage age could land on that
state's legislative to-do list.
Despite pesticide usage sickening school kids, and EPA regulations
affecting farmers' economic bottom lines, and reversion to horse-and-
plow farming becoming more common because it's cheaper than using
diesel machines, the Kansas Legislature is going to drop everything on
its agenda and rush to repair their moral standing in the eyes of
Jesusland. Over-crowded Kansas jails can wait! Bring on the Chastity
Belt Act!
Matthew Koso rests on the pregnant belly of his 14-year-old wife,
Crystal Koso.
(Krista Niles)
"We probably ought to discuss it," said one Kansas lawmaker, Rep. John
Faber. He represents five counties in northwest Kansas that border
Nebraska. [PDF] "Some laws just don't make any sense."
Considering some of the other issues which are more likely to affect
the good citizens of Kansas and Nebraska, this whole situation doesn't
make any sense for all the attention it's getting while more important
issues barely get a glance!
The [law] in question came to light last week when Bruning announced
he filed a rape charge against a 22-year-old Falls City man who
married his pregnant, 14-year-old girlfriend. They didn't tie the knot
in their home state, because the law wouldn't allow it. The minimum
marriage age in Nebraska, with parental consent, is 17. Not so in
Kansas, where the couple married in May. In the sunflower state, the
bar is set at 12 years old, with parental consent; boys have to wait
until they're 14.
Asked to pick what he thought was a reasonable age fellow Kansas
lawmakers should consider, Faber said 16. "That's a lifetime away from
12 years old."
"I didn't realize it was that young," said another Kansas lawmaker,
Rep. Sharon Schwartz. She has two border counties, Marshall and
Washington, in her northeast Kansas district. [PDF] "I'd probably be
supportive" of raising the age, she added.
Should Kansas raise the marriage-age limit, it would be more in line
with other states.
They could add it to the Kansas Marriage Amendment! That'll stop those
horny and un-parentally-supervised teenagers!
According to information compiled by the Cornell University Legal
Information Institute, only one other state, Massachusetts, has a
minimum age of 12 for girls, with parental consent. No state has a
minimum below 12 years. The most common minimum age with parental
consent is 16, putting Nebraska's law close to par with other states,
and most of its neighbors. The border states of Iowa, South Dakota and
Colorado have 16 as the minimum age, with parental consent.
But as a Kansas official points out, this isn't a hunka-hunka-burning
love issue in their state:
Not a lot of pre-pubescent girls have taken advantage of the lenient
Kansas law in recent years. In 2003, the most recent year for which
data is available, just five girls younger than 15 got married in
Kansas, according to Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for the Kansas
Department of Health and Environment. There were three in 2002.
Lest someone think that I'm taking this lightly, I am the father of a
15 year old daughter. I have to wonder just what the parents were
thinking allowing their under-age daughter to get involved with an
older man. I know that I would be much more of my daughter's
activities (as I indeed am, thank you very much!) than they appear to
have been.
But on the other hand, to paraphrase our Secretary of Illegal
Invasion, you go with the pregnant daughter you have when she needs to
get married, not the virginal one you wish you had. And the man in
question didn't dodge his responsibilities by running off, as many of
us personally are aware of someone who did take off. In a sense, the
couple are making the best of the sitation they created. I really wish
them luck, for they are going to need it.
Almost as much as the two states they riled up with their affair will,
since they have no sense of proportion concerning importance.
A lot of commentary here.
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