Overview

• SB213, enacted in March 2024, reclassified sex between 18-year-old high school students and 13-year-olds from first-degree child rape to a third-degree felony without requiring registry.
• Prosecutor Cara Tangaro told Judge Rita Cornish that although SB213 wasn’t retroactive, its amendment was pivotal in securing reduced charges and avoiding sex-offender registration for the defendant.
• J. Stuart Adams acknowledges knowing about his relative’s case but insists he neither requested nor drafted the amendment and framed his support as an effort to protect students turning 18 while still enrolled.
• Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore says Adams asked for the language to be included in SB213, a claim Adams publicly disputes in statements to the press.
• The victim’s mother and other critics argue the amendment undermines protections for younger teens and amounts to special treatment for a politically connected defendant.