14 DAY TRIAL // They do say that nothing should stand between a man and his beer, wife or life partner included, but, this time, one Greenfield man took the saying a little too to heart. Yahoo! News is reporting that the man has been arrested for trying to sell his 14-year-old daughter for 100 cases of beer, $16,000 in cash and a few packs of meat.
However, the 36-year-old man did not stop here with his crime, proving that, when it comes to being completely disconnected from reality, there is probably no better candidate for the “position” than him. Apparently, he struck the deal with an 18-year-old man, who, in turn, would have gotten the girl’s hand in marriage. The teenager, though, failed to come through with his part of the bargain, which is when the father went to the police to file a complaint against him for kidnapping the girl.
As the real story behind the “abduction” was uncovered, the father was arrested on charges of human trafficking. The boy who was to become the husband of the 14-year-old girl was also picked up, and is now pending charges of statutory rape, since the girl was not of the legal age. Police officers involved in the investigation believe that the girl might have been previously connected to the boy in one way or another but, so far, they have nothing to back it up.
Another lead in the ongoing investigation has it that the girl herself was already considering marrying the 18-year-old boy, which would explain the whole “transaction,” since she was only 14 and, under California law, under the legal age of consent, which meant she could not marry legally. Nevertheless, this theory does not explain why the father went to the police, instead of waiting patiently for the boy to fulfill his promise.
All theories and possible jokes aside, authorities are saying that arranged marriages between underage girls and of age partners “have become a problem in this small Central Coast farming community,” Yahoo! News reports.