Law&Crime Sidebar - Celebrated Search Team's Founding Member Charged with Child Rape

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller

Starting point is 00:00:35 that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. You are not going to want to miss today's episode as we are in Branson, Missouri, where back in 2017 a duck boat goes on land and then it goes on water. And 17 people ended up passing away. It's being reported that one of the founding members of the popular dive group Adventures with Purpose has been charged with raping a child. Attorney Jenny Alcotti comes on to discuss.

Starting point is 00:01:11 Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. There is a disturbing report that has come out that a founding member of the volunteer dive group Adventures with Purpose has been criminally charged with raping a child. This comes from the U.S. Sun. There's been very, very limited information about this, very limited reporting on it, but we do have some details to talk to you about. Now, for our followers here on Sidebar, you may recall that we had previously done interviews with Doug Bishop and Nick Rinn from this dive group before all of this news came to light. We actually interviewed them for their role in finding the body of missing teenager, Kylie Rodney.

Starting point is 00:01:50 So we're going to head over here to the other side of the reservoir where there are lots of drive lanes down. to the water's edge where people have cookouts, get-togethers, parties, you know, family gatherings. You know, this is a prime location where Kylie's vehicle could have made it into the reservoir. I just confirmed there are human rights in the vehicle over. Well, now 47-year-old Jared Lysick, one of the founding members of this organization, is reportedly facing two counts of rape of a child for conduct. back in 1992 out in Utah. And I want to bring in trial attorney Jenny Alcotti, who specializes in kind of a related topic of human trafficking. She's a regular on the long crime network.

Starting point is 00:02:37 Jenny, good to see you. Thanks for coming on Sidebar. As I said, there's not a lot out there. There's not a lot of details right now. But there is this court filing that says that Mr. Lysick faces two counts of rape of a child, which is a first degree felony. One is from January 1st, 1992. And another is from October 1st, 1992. What do these crimes mean? What the language of these statutes? What would a prosecution have to prove? And when you look at what we know, what stands out to you? Yeah. So first off, I think one of the main important things to notice is the length of time of passage from the date of the incident to when these survivors and these victims actually came out about their abuse. It's very difficult, especially as a minor,

Starting point is 00:03:18 to even process the fact that you were raped or you were sexually abused. So the mental processing that it takes for that and for the ability to come forward is why we have such great laws and Utah has an amazing statute where there's no statute of limitations when it comes to minors being sexually abused or raped. Just to make sure that we understand that, you're saying there's no statute of limitations. There's no time bar on the criminal charges, on criminal charges like this, right? Correct. So there's no time bar for if you were raped as a minor to bring your claim in a criminal justice system. So that is the nice thing because we've seen science has shown that minors who were abused normally it doesn't take it takes them until the age of 53 to even come

Starting point is 00:03:57 forward so that's the first thing the second thing is the statute's language is that we know a minor cannot consent to to sexual intercourse therefore it doesn't matter if they were forced it doesn't matter if they were coerced it doesn't none of that matters they cannot consent to sexual intercourse so if they were a minor and they were raped by another individual point proven it's a felony of the first degree and that can land them to jail from 15 to life in prison. It really depends. And two counts, you know, it depends on what the judge wants to issue, but they can run it consecutively or they can run it concurrently. So it really just depends. And just so we understand here, again, he allegedly, he allegedly did this. We don't know the exact details of everything yet.

Starting point is 00:04:40 In Utah, is there any defense to, is there any defense to say, I thought she was of age? She told me she was of age. I know that's a tricky question because certain states, differ there, but what do we know about Utah? So for Utah, we know that according to 76, 5402, that no, without the individual's consent, regardless of the fact that they indicated, yes, I am of age, no, if they are a minor, it doesn't matter. There's no really defense in that retrospect. And I have to ask you, there's something interesting because Adventures with Purpose has quite a big following on YouTube, and I think some other YouTube channels were taking notice of the fact that Mr. Lysick wasn't in the video of this group discovering the body of Kylie Rodney,

Starting point is 00:05:23 one of their biggest videos, something that really put them on the map for what they did. Does that give you the sense that, I mean, we have no idea why that was the case, but does it give you the sense that maybe he was out of the spotlight considering these charges were coming down the pipeline? It did give me the sense. Something that really kind of rubbed me the wrong way is I had followed them for quite some time as well. And, you know, when you see things like that where you see, oh, they're trying to help

Starting point is 00:05:46 society, they're trying to build a good systemic change to help save people. And then you hear a story like this, it really just makes you question everybody's motives, really. And when you think back on it and you see, oh, he wasn't there. It really does get you questioning, was there some type of reason for it? And it's really sad. Well, we have to be clear, right? We don't know why he wasn't on. We don't know whether any of the other people at the organization even knew about this. He maybe wasn't on for whatever reason. And again, it's an interesting question, right? Because he allegedly did this. Let's assume, of course, let's assume that he did do this. Let's assume he gets convicted. What does that do to Adventures with Purpose? He's one of their founding members. You talk

Starting point is 00:06:25 about the good that they've done. I'll give you an idea here. Since 2019, this group has solved at least 23 missing persons cases. The reason that they're getting such attention is because they do amazing work, they're able to provide tools that other people aren't able to do or they just lend a helping hand. Whatever the situation is with Mr. Lysick, how is that going to affect the group's mission? How is that going to affect possible donations where that is how they're actually able to operate? They were very transparent about it. They said that they receive a half a cent for anytime viewers watch an ad on their videos. That's how they actually make money. How is this going to affect the organization? I think it's going to significantly affect the

Starting point is 00:07:03 organization as a whole. I mean, I don't think they'll start getting donations. I think it's going to open up investigations into the other members. They've got a lot of PR mending to have to do. Maybe it is that not all the members have these accusations against them, but it is going to open up that investigations. And they're going to have to do a lot of mending to show, you know, even though this one person from our group, we had no idea, they have to show that we are still good people and we're trying to change things in society. But media is a powerful tool. So if where it gets around, for me personally, it's one of those things where, okay, I'm not going to support somebody that I know is committing these crimes, it makes you question a lot of things. I have to emphasize this. We don't know

Starting point is 00:07:45 what the story is. All of this is alleged. I will ask you, you mentioned something about the timeframe, right? 1992, you would took the position, and it was interesting that many of these victims don't even realize the gravity of what happened to him. They don't recognize that it was sexual assault. And maybe that's why it takes so long to come forward with, you know, accusations and charges. The counter argument is it's an old case. It's from 1992. Is there a situation where it would be really tough for the prosecution to prove a case like this. Absolutely. I mean, one of the hardest things in discovery is dating back that far, being able to get any type of witness statements, any type of documentation that would prove these alleged claims. So that is

Starting point is 00:08:26 something that's going to be very difficult for the prosecution is how do you date back that far and get people to remember those things? You know, was there ever a police report? Was there ever they ever tell somebody, especially as a minor? You don't tend to tell your parents as a minor because again, you don't know. You don't know at that age that you were just raped or sexually assaulted. So it's definitely going to be a hurdle for the prosecution. And I should tell you here at Saibar, we have reached out to Adventures with Purpose. They basically direct us to their legal team. We never really got much of a response here, which is understandable giving this news. Jenny Alcotti, I appreciate you taking the time. It's a really disturbing route. We're going to

Starting point is 00:09:01 see which way this ultimately goes. Hopefully there's going to be more reporting and more information that comes to light because it is a very serious issue. Jenny, thank you. much. Thanks, Jesse. And thanks everybody for joining us once again here on Sidebar. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - Celebrated Search Team's Founding Member Charged with Child Rape

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