The New York State Police has charged a 7 year old boy with rape. The unidentified child, from Brasher Falls near the US-Canada border, was charged with third-degree rape on March 23.
Authorities said the incident was first reported on November 26 2020.
The little boy has been released and will be tried as a juvenile delinquent according to reports.
Under current state law, the minimum age of criminal prosecution is 7 .
The incident reportedly occured on Thanksgiving in upstate New York.
No further details have been released about the incident .
The case will be handled in Family Court, according to the police.
It is also not clear what relation, if any, the suspect and the victim are to one another.
Anthony Martone, a Queens attorney who handles youth defense cases slammed authorities as ‘absurd’ for bringing the charges against the 7-year-old and said he believes it is almost an ‘impossibility’ that they will stick.
‘Instinctually, it shouldn’t happen that a 7 year old – I don’t think you even could really realize what you’re doing at 7 years old,’ said .
‘So I think it’s absurd to charge a 7 year old with rape. They’d have to prove he actually physically committed this act, which to me it almost seems to be an impossibility.’