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Because #1, that's not how law enforcement actually works, the detective (or possibly deputy, I'm unsure as to who actually arrested whom) made the apprehension on the orders of the DA with the warrant issued from the judge, not on his own free will.

#2, The detective just did his job, which was investigate the crime. We should never forget, a crime did occur here, statutory rape, as well as several minor consumption of alcohol charges and just as many narcotics charges. That is often blown off. Genarlow did deserve to be punished, but ten years plus sex offender status is gross overkill.

In a perfect world, none of these things would be illegal, but they are, and as a detective, you are paid to investigate these things.

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I may have misunderstood. I thought that the charge with the first girl was for "forcible rape." Further, I thought the second one (the BJ) was the statutory charge.

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You are correct, however, a police officer cannot actually charge anyone with anything, at least not to bring in front of a judge.

When you are arrested, and you say to the officer "What am I being charged with?" and he answers you, what he's actually telling you is what he's going to suggest to the DA you be charged with, not what you're actually charged with.

I'm not saying the detectives are totally innocent here, because I don't personally know them. The only Douglas County deputies I know on a level personal enough to extract real information out of are rookies, most of whom have only been on the street for 18-24 months, so they were either still in school or working in the county lock-up when the case went down. The detectives may've done wrong, and if so, they need to be reprimanded, however, the only way this detective could be locked up concerning this case is if it could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he altered evidence, withheld evidence, or lied.

You can scratch off lying, since rape is unfortunately largely an opinion.

From GA Code 16-6-1

TITLE 16. CRIMES AND OFFENSES
CHAPTER 6. SEXUAL OFFENSES

O.C.G.A. § 16-6-1 (2007)

§ 16-6-1. Rape


(a) A person commits the offense of rape when he has carnal knowledge of:

(1) A female forcibly and against her will; or

(2) A female who is less than ten years of age.

Carnal knowledge in rape occurs when there is any penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ. The fact that the person allegedly raped is the wife of the defendant shall not be a defense to a charge of rape.

(b) A person convicted of the offense of rape shall be punished by death, by imprisonment for life without parole, by imprisonment for life, or by a split sentence that is a term of imprisonment for not less than 25 years and not exceeding life imprisonment, followed by probation for life. Any person convicted under this Code section shall, in addition, be subject to the sentencing and punishment provisions of Code Sections 17-10-6.1 and 17-10-7.

(c) When evidence relating to an allegation of rape is collected in the course of a medical examination of the person who is the victim of the alleged crime, the law enforcement agency investigating the alleged crime shall be responsible for the cost of the medical examination to the extent that expense is incurred for the limited purpose of collecting evidence.


The phrase "forcibly and against her will" becomes very muddled, as sex crimes detectives are taught that "just because a woman seems to be enjoying it, doesn't mean it's not rape".

I don't know what may have happened behind closed doors here, either. At times, these detectives and DA's will have very vocal disagreements concerning charges, and this detective may very well have fought McDade to the very end, then again, he may not have.

In any event, he didn't do anything legally wrong. Morally, that's a completely different argument.