SEBASTIAN, Fla. — New details emerged Monday in the arrest of an 18-year-old Florida high school senior accused of “lewd and lascivious behavior” with her then 14-year-old girlfriend, after the Indian River County Sheriff’s Department released a copy of the arrest affidavit.
Kaitlyn Hunt, a senior at Sebastian River High School in Sebastian, Fla., who turned 18 last August, has been charged with two felony counts of “lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 – 16 years of age” stemming from the relationship, which turned sexual prior to Christmas, according to the arrest record.
Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar said Monday that the girl’s mother and father brought her to their office in February to file the complaint against Hunt.
On Feb. 15 sheriff’s investigator Jeremy Shepherd monitored a phone call between Hunt and the alleged victim, in which the girls acknowledged their relationship included sexual activity. The affidavit quotes Hunt as saying she had never been in love with anybody else like she was with the girl.
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Hunt was arrested and charged Feb. 16.
“This is about two teenage high school girls who were dating, and both consenting,” Hunt’s mother, Kelley Hunt Smith Smith, told LGBTQ Nation on Saturday. “They are out to destroy my daughter, because they feel like she ‘made’ their daughter gay.”
According the arrest record released Monday, Hunt confirmed that she had sexual relations with her girlfriend on two occasions.
The first alleged encounter was in the school’s west wing bathroom. According to the affidavit, they kissed and Hunt allegedly touched the other girl sexually.
The girl, whose name was redacted from the arrest record, told investigators she ran away from her home on Jan. 4 and spent the night with Hunt at her home in Sebastian, where allegedly there was another sexual encounter.
Each of the charges against Hunt are for two specific time periods: Dec. 1 to 31 and for Jan. 1 to 16.
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Hunt, who is an honor roll student, is being allowed to participate in graduation.
She faces the possibility of a 15-year prison sentence, but was offered a plea deal this week by state attorney Brian Workman, according to Smith.
Under the terms of the plea deal, Hunt would be sentenced to two years house arrest, and allowed to attend school or work only during that time, one year of probation and attend sex offender counseling. It would be at a judge’s discretion whether Hunt would be required to register as a sex offender.
Hunt’s mother is working to get the charges against her daughter dropped. A petition at Change.org has received more than 60,000 signatures.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the alleged victim’s age was 14 at the time of the incidents, according to the arrest record and Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar.
