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Case of woman posing as boy clouded by gender identity, age

Patricia Dye, a 31-year-old Franklin woman who authorities said pretended to be a 14-year-old boy to get close to a teenage girl, is arraigned in Warren County Juvenile Court on Tuesday, Aug. 3. At left is Dye's public defender, Rob Kaufman. Staff photo by Chris Stewart

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Patricia Dye, a 31-year-old Franklin woman who authorities said pretended to be a 14-year-old boy to get close to a teenage girl, is arraigned in Warren County Juvenile Court on Tuesday, Aug. 3. At left is Dye's public defender, Rob Kaufman. Staff photo by Chris Stewart

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By Lawrence Budd, Staff Writer Updated 12:11 AM Sunday, August 8, 2010

LEBANON — Warren County prosecutors searching Ohio law for felonies to file against Patricia Dye found a charge for rapists who pretend to be someone’s husband to lure their victims.

But the search failed to find any felony fitting the unique facts in the case of the 31-year-old Franklin woman accused of pretending to be a boy named Matt to help build sexual relationships with teenage girls in Springboro and Middletown.

“It’s something we looked at extensively,” said Matt Nolan, spokesman for the county prosecutor’s office. “There’s nothing like that.”

To the chagrin of some observers around the country, Dye faces no prison — and no more than nine months in the county jail if convicted — as a result of the misdemeanor indictments against her.

Awaiting her Aug. 23 trial, Dye remains in the Lebanon jail, where she has already served more than a month. She has no prior criminal record and could qualify for probation.

Tracey Steele, director of Wright State University’s Criminal Justice program, said cases involving women pretending to be boys to lure girls into sexual relationships are “virtually nonexistent.”

Reactions to changes in society’s views of gender and sex expression could be fueling the outcry in the Dye case, she said.

“Today, we have greater awareness of the diversity of personal expression as well as some concrete social change, which may make some people uncomfortable,” she said.

Gender identity raises questions

Dye, who pleaded not guilty during a hearing last week, was arrested June 30 after police found a 16-year-old Springboro girl on the streets of Franklin, three days after she had run away from home, malnourished and with sores on her feet.

Police first confronted questions about Dye’s gender as they interviewed the alleged victim and other potential witnesses.

The girl told police that Dye had sexual contact with her at her home before she turned 16 and in the woods behind the apartment on June 28, her birthday and the day she ran away.

Although she knew Dye was a female, another girl interviewed by police said “there were speculations about Dye’s true gender,” Springboro Officer Dustin Christian said in a report.

After Dye’s arrest, a Middletown family told police that Dye also pretended to be a boy while dating their 16-year-old daughter. Police declined to seek charges after determining no crimes had been committed.

“It’s just not right that (Dye) can get away with what she did to my daughter. She is hurt and embarrassed and it hurts her reputation,” the father said. “It’s hard to get over.”

After a Warren County grand jury declined to bring any felony charges against Dye, the Springboro girl and her mother expressed their displeasure in televised interviews echoed in reactions from across the country and including local prosecutors.

“There’s no doubt we’re as unhappy as anyone out there that there isn’t a more high-level crime,” Nolan said.

Age of consent complicates case

Among the limiting factors in prosecuting Dye was the Springboro girl’s age at the time of some of the alleged crimes: 16 is the age of consent. Until they turn 16, victims are considered incapable of “informed consent,” according to Ohio law.

To be convicted of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, a felony, prosecutors would have had to prove the victim was younger than 16, Nolan said.

The grand jury indicted on charges of sexual imposition and attempted sexual imposition, based on alleged sexual contact before the girl’s 16th birthday.

A third charge, contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a child, stems from Dye’s alleged role in the girl running away from home.

Nolan said prosecutors also were stifled by the absence of Ohio law making it a crime to pretend to be a different gender to pursue sexual relationships.

Rather than being identified simply as male or female, individual sex and gender expression are increasingly viewed “more on a continuum,” Steele said.

“The transgender community is starting to gain a lot of momentum,” said Steele, also an associate professor of sociology at Wright State.

The vast majority of pedophiles are adult men, some of whom try to gain youths’ trust by posing as boys or girls in online conversations, Steele said. Ohio law already addresses this problem.

Staff writer Jessica Heffner contributed to this report.

Contact this reporter at

(937) 225-2261 or lbudd

DaytonDailyNews

.com.

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