Edwin McFarlane pleads not guilty, gets released

[nalnn]

Source: Orlando Sentinel

Edwin McFarlane, the 15-year-old Minneola boy charged with attacking a female student on a school bus in Lake County, pleaded not guilty today to sexual battery and false imprisonment charges and was released from juvenile detention.

His Orlando attorney, Natalie Jackson, said whatever happened between the Edwin and the girl earlier this month was consensual — even though the girl is heard saying "no'' on an audio recording.

Jackson said she thinks the apology letter he wrote was coerced.

Edwin is also returning to South Lake High School, possibly as soon as Monday. He was suspended for ten days due to his arrest last Monday.

Read more: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/os-edwin-mcfarlane-arraignment-20110324,0,3483811.story

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I thought I should provide this update to an article I posted a week or so ago.

[DCKit]

1. This is going to come back and bite the prosecutors in the ass. nt

[RedCloud]

2. WTH?

During an arraignment hearing this morning, the State Attorney's Office tried unsuccessfully to keep Edwin in detention by bringing up last year's case in Orange County when he was arrested on a false-imprisonment charge after leaving a Burlington Coat Factory near Ocoee with a 3-year-old girl.

[nalnn]

3. WTH indeed.

He was in juvie, not jail. Why couldn't they have kept him there?

[Javaman]

4. Yet another fine upstanding citizen to be let loose upon society.

he will be back in jail, but only after raping or molesting someone else first.

My sig line rings true everyday.