Avens O’Brien: Let’s Talk About Cody Wilson

aonarach.wordpress.com:

Cody Wilson is a well known (in some circles) 30-year-old gun rights activist. Many know him as the 3D printed gun guy. He runs a company called Defense Distributed – they produce files that help individuals with the 3D printing of weapons. As you can imagine, he and his company are not popular with the government (or anti-weapon people).

He recently allegedly met a young woman in TX on a website called SugarDaddyMeet(.com) where all members must be over the age of 18. The site boasts “member verification” – however tucked into their service agreement is this:

“SM.com is not responsible for any of the information provided to SDM.com or SM.com during the age, education, photo, occupation, income or any other verification process. In issuing any certification as to a Member’s “verified” or “certified” status, you agree and accept that SM.com has not done any due diligence on the materials or information provided, but has simply relied on the information submitted by the Member or user, which may or may not be accurate or truthful. The term “verified” or “certified” is not to be in anyway construed as a guarantee of any information provided by the Member to you or by the Member or user to SM.com.“

This young woman claimed to be 18. In reality she was 16. According to investigators “she looks younger”, though no public photos of her have been released (and likely won’t since she’s a minor) so it’s not like any of us get to judge that, and I’m not sure I want to base my opinion on an investigator’s opinion.

Either way, she presented herself as 18 (therefore a legal adult and over the age of consent in TX).

The two allegedly met in person, went to an Austin TX hotel, had sex, and Wilson gave her $500 (presumably for the sex. SugarDaddyMeet, and other websites like it, strongly encourage “Daddies” to give gifts to their “babies” when they first meet – and some arrangements aren’t explicitly or primarily sexual though obviously many are).

TX age of consent is 17. The young woman apparently has been seeing a counselor for a while for something else, and spoke to her counselor about this, who reported it to the police.

Since the young woman is actually 16, Wilson has a warrant out for his arrest for a second degree felony charge of sexual assault (potential punishment on conviction is 2-20 years & a $10k fine). This is not in reference to prostitution, as Reason(.com) reports – “The nature of the charge under Texas penal code 22.011(A)(2)(a) makes consent or payment irrelevant; her being legally a child is all that matters.”

Wilson was traveling in Taiwan. The US Government revoked his passport, and police in Taiwan arrested him and he is expected to be deported back to the US for trial.

Wilson’s case within the public (or internet) sphere seems to get a lot of knee-jerk response: either “absolutely a govt set up” or “he’s a rapist”. As you can imagine, this is not my style.

My thoughts:

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Avens O’Brien is a second-generation Libertarian activist, the child of former LP candidates for Governor and Congress in NH who worked on the Hospers campaign in 1972. She’s the product of unschooling and peaceful parenting, started college at 14 years old, and is the former Vice Chair of the LPNH from 2006-2008. She’s been active in anti-war protests since 2003, volunteered on Badnarik’s presidential campaign in 2004, and Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in 2008.