According to the New York Times (2009), “An analysis of census data on age difference in marriages showed that the number of marriages between women who are at least 5 or 10 years older than their spouses is still small, 5.4  percent (about 6.5 million people) and 1.3 percent (1.6 million), respectively. But both rates doubled between 1960 and 2007, according to Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College, who conducted the analysis.”

If these statistics are true, then why did the police conduct an investigation of James Hooker discovering that fourteen years ago, he may have had oral sex with a 17 year old (when he was 27)?  His accuser is 31 today.  The police must have done a lot of digging to come up with this alleged victim of statutory oral sexual rape, which may have been illegally consensual.

If the police are going to investigate one relationship between an older man and younger woman, why not investigate them all—why was James Hooker singled out? In the US, millions of older men are having intimate relationships with younger women.

If the alleged oral sex did take place, was Hooker married at the time?  Did he meet the 17 year old in a bar and did she have false ID?  Did he meet her at all and is this woman lieing because she wants to break up Hooker’s relationship with Powers and punish this man by sending him to jail because he doesn’t live by her moral standards?

Breezy – Directed by Clink Eastwood and starring William Holden and Kay Lenz

Directed by Clint Eastwood, this is the story of a May-December romance between divorced middle-aged Frank Harmon (William Holden) and ditzy teenager Breezy (Kay Lenz). Frank finds Breezy sleeping on his porch, and eventually a friendship develops that leads to an affair. All goes well until Frank’s friends put pressure on him, and he ends his relationship with Breezy. But, when a friend dies, Frank realizes how important Breezy is in his life. He apologizes, and they live happily ever after.

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No matter what the verdict may be if this alleged crime goes to court, we will never know if this claim is true. What we do know is that Hooker has bad judgment, and he was a public school teacher. Falling in love with his former student before she graduated from high school and moving in with her was not a crime but it is turning out to be a nightmare for him and maybe many future teachers that fall in love with consensual adults that were once a student.

By the way, “alleged” means that Hooker has not been found guilty of what may have happened fourteen years ago. He claims he is innocent. In fact, if it is just his word against his accuser, how do we know the accusation is true?

In fact, if a judge and/or jury find Hooker guilty and send him to jail for twenty years to life, he may still be an innocent man. Innocent people are convicted of crimes all the time. The Innocent Project.org says that since the year 1989, two hundred and eighty nine convicted criminals serving prison sentences were found innocent due to DNA evidence… In addition, “False confessions and incriminating statements lead to wrongful convictions in approximately 25 percent of cases.”

In Hooker’s case, there is no DNA evidence—only the accusations of one 31 year old woman for something that may have happened 14 years ago.  Any expert of human memory can tell you that over time, our memories are not exact and accurate and often change. However, when tried in the court of public opinion, it doesn’t matter what the truth may be. What counts is the mob’s opinions.

Continued on April 16, 2012 in Part 6 of  the Mob’s War Against Teachers or return to Part 4

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Lloyd Lofthouse is a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran,
who taught in the public schools for thirty years (1975 – 2005).

His third book is Crazy is Normal, a classroom exposé, a memoir. “Lofthouse presents us with grungy classrooms, kids who don’t want to be in school, and the consequences of growing up in a hardscrabble world. While some parents support his efforts, many sabotage them—and isolated administrators make the work of Lofthouse and his peers even more difficult.” – Bruce Reeves

Lofthouse’s first novel was the award winning historical fiction My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. His second novel was the award winning thriller Running with the Enemy. His short story A Night at the “Well of Purity” was named a finalist of the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards. His wife is Anchee Min, the international, best-selling, award winning author of Red Azalea, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year (1992).

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