Ask Mr. Answer Person: "Quick, change your wording for the charges against the teenage boys harassing children. Harassment, not enticement--two very different offenses"

A decorahnews.com reader e-mails us: "Quick, change your wording for the charges against the teenage boys harassing children.  Harassment, not enticement--two very different offenses."

Mr. Answer Person says: "Actually, our story is correct.  Even though authorities described the incident as a possible child enticement, the three boys were charged with harassment, not child enticement.

(Caution: what follows is a GENERAL description of the law, not a summary of what happened in this particular case.)

When authorities decide what charges, if any, to file in a case like this, they first check the Iowa Statues about "child enticement," which says prosecutors must prove the accused person either enticed a minor under the age of 13 with the intent to commit sexual abuse or sexual exploitation; or enticed a minor under the age of 16 with the intent to commit an illegal sex act upon or sexual exploitation of the minor.

If authorities feel they cannot prove those charges, they may check what the Iowa Statues have to say about "harassment"--

"A person commits harassment when the person, purposefully and without legitimate purpose, has personal contact with another person, with the intent to threaten, intimidate, or alarm that other person."

While a harassment charge is a misdemeanor, not a felony, there are varying degrees of harassment changes:

--First degree harassment is committed "when the person commits harassment involving a threat to commit a forcible felony, or commits harassment and has previously been convicted of harassment three or more times under this section or any similar statute during the preceding ten years."

--Second degree harassment is committed "when the person commits harassment involving a threat to commit bodily injury, or commits harassment and has previously been convicted of harassment two times under this section or any similar statute during the preceding ten years."

In the case involving the three teenagers, they were charged with third degree harassment.  Here's what Iowa Code has to say about third degree harassment: "Any other act of harassment is harassment in the third degree....Harassment in the third degree is a simple misdemeanor."