what do i do?

[slargy]

so i recently ended a bit of a rocky relationship with a girl i liked and it ended on a perfect note. complete understanding and agreement that it isnt good for both of us and that i just dont have time for it anymore. long story short i recieved a few texts the other day (3 weeks after the end of the relationship) and she began talking bout how she had a new boyfriend andhow great he was. I,being extremely busy at the time, told her i couldnt talk to which she responded with an extremely long text about how horrible i am and how i should die and so on so forth. there was really no issue at that point and i simply asked her not to talk to me if she was simply trying to start problems (believe it or not i have been completely polite in all of my responses.) but all of the sudden ive been getting texts from random numbers that "i found out where you live if you talk bad about *name* one more time ill beat the shit out of you". Obviously this is harassment and i will not hesitate to go to the police to report it. the only problem is, she was 15 when i was 17 and although we didnt have sex it is still considered a violation of the illinois age of consent. it seems to me that i have no option than to continue just taking the threats for fear of them pressing statuatory rape charges. please tell me... what do i do? Its not that i am scared of the threats but more that i want it to stop and she just wont listen no matter how politely i ask.

[BDF]

Can't charge you with rape if you didn't even have sex, no matter what age you both are.

Apart from that it kinda sounds like you know how to handle it.

[Sea Monkey]

Hey there,

She was a minor when she was in a relationship with you, and you were also a minor (under 18) at the time, I don't think anything would be done regarding statutory rape, and you didn't have sex with her so it may be that nothing gets done about it since it wasn't a sexual relationship. I think you should just go to the police and tell them what has been happening regarding texts you have been receiving. Your ex-girlfriend may not even think about trying to press charges against you. I think the harrassment needs to be sorted, and it's great that you are thinking of going to the police regarding this.

Take care.

[Dr.Bobby]

Slargy, you have exceedingly good judgement here in the way you're handling this, +1!

What you're experiencing here is (at best) harassment, but frankly it sounds like it's crossed over into physically menacing and threatening behavior. That's downright illegal. And, you have the proof. The question is: Risk.

Although there are things people can do in retaliation (as you see!), the over riding determinant to your response here is the risk of danger to you (and your willingness in the absence of that to tolerate/ignore her). You have to decide how threatened you feel, or how intolerable this is to you.

If you find this truly menacing, then you call the police and file a complaint. What she says/does in response will be taken into account, but the final determinant of what they do ( to her, or to you based on some bogus accusation) will be determined by the weight of the facts. I don't know Illinois law, so I don't know if she can file a (bogus) sexual compliant years after the fact, and in response to a totally unrelated issue. Besides, that's illegal, and she has no proof. The police aren't stupid. I digress..

If you feel threatened, you call the police. If you're annoyed, you either ignore it, or change your phone number.

[BDF]

If you feel threatened, lift some weights and join a kick boxing class.

Besides that, was it you who broke up with her or the other way round? I know you said it was "mutual", but there's always one person who brings it up.