Man faces charges in putting boy at risk of abuse

Friday, April 8, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

A 38-year-old man is facing child abuse and neglect charges because a teenager repeatedly molested a 7-year-old in his care.

Bobbie Davenport is scheduled to stand trial before District Judge Joseph Bonaventure on May 9 in what lawyers say is the first case of its kind. Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich Rego said Davenport knew that the teenager had sexually assaulted "several little boys" when he was 11 and was placed on juvenile sex offender probation.

As a condition of the boy's probation, he was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with children.

But prosecutors say Davenport knew, or should have known, what could happen when he left the teenager alone with the younger boy. And Luzaich Rego said Davenport never told the victim's mother that the teenager had previously sexually assaulted anyone.

Davenport's attorney, Robert Langford, said the case was yet another example of "criminalizing tragedy," which he says is a trend he has witnessed in the district attorney's office.

"Something tragic happened and people say, 'Let's look for a monster,' " Lang-ford said. "There is absolutely no criminal liability and anyone who suggests otherwise is simply putting a total spin on the facts of this case."

Luzaich Rego said that although such a case has never been charged or tried in the country's criminal justice system, there are cases of a similar nature. Prosecutors have charged parents with child abuse and neglect for leaving children at home alone with a gun that results in a child shooting someone.

She said Davenport regularly left the teen with the 7-year-old, knowing the teen was a sexual predator.