34-year-old Daniel Simmons, the Deputy Attorney General of Delaware’s Department of Justice, has been accused of raping a 16-year-old boy he met on Grindr, CSN Philly reports.
Simmons (pictured) first met the boy back in March. He was arrested last Friday, after a month-long investigation, and charged with four counts of rape in the fourth degree.
On Monday, State Prosecutor Kathleen Jennings announced that Simmons had officially resigned from his position with the Department of Justice, where he had been employed as a prosecutor since 2006.
“The Department of Justice today secured Daniel Simmons’ immediate resignation,” Jennings said in a released statement. “We are deeply disturbed by the conduct alleged in this case. We are most concerned for the welfare of the victim. This case will be vigorously pursued to justice. Ethically we are prohibited from saying more.”
Investigators believe more victims may soon come forward.
This is just the latest in a string of alleged sexual assaults connected to dating apps. Last month, a 34-year-old Canadian man said he was sexually assaulted and robbed by a man he met on Grindr. And earlier this year, adult film actor Mike Dozer was accused on raping a 14-year-old boy he met on Jack’D.
TerrenM
I understand Queerty is not the Washington Post. I understand this site is mostly for entertainment purposes. But this story ‘broke’ Saturday afternoon. Is Queerty going to ‘break’ Michael Alig’s release in early June?
KDub
Gay men preying on teens. Way to break stereotypes!
Billy Budd
He looks cruel in the photo.
Billy Budd
I never understood how a person can rape another. The raper must have a very twisted mind. How can you get an erection without any intimacy, without any response from the other part? Even if I took 3 blue pills, I wouldn’t be able to rape a beautiful guy. I could molest him, that would be easy, but not rape him.
Rapists are probably excited by being cruel towards people, and by having control and dominating the victims.
Humans can be crazy in so many ways!
Blackceo
I am so glad these apps weren’t available to me when I was in my teens because I know I would’ve been on them. The opportunity to meet other gay/bi/DL men is so different than it was when I was in secondary school in the mid 90s and it really is much more dangerous. AOL was just coming along when I was 16/17 and that just changed the game with the chat rooms and ability to send a picture. But it was still a novelty. Nowadays there are a number of hook up sites and just options galore to the fact that it pinpoints you down to the number of feet away you are. This guy is scum but these lil fast ass teens need to be careful and sit down somewhere and stick to playing XBox.
Throbert McGee
@Blackceo: I totally hear ya. I graduated from high school in 1989 and we got our first modem for the family computer about a year after that (in our case, it was Prodigy, not AOL). Got my first Internet email account as a college junior circa 1991, and by the mid ’90s was eagerly trading X-rated selfies (relatively low-res, over a slooow modem) with other dudes on the then-new Web. (I got into exhibitionist self-pr0n very early — made my first J/O video when I was 15 using my dad’s bulky VHS camcorder, did dozens more by the time I was in college, and in my early 20s I swapped my J/O videotapes with a few other guys by snailmail… just as a fun “hobby,” not for money!)
ANYHEW, nothing bad ever happened to me, but when I was 16 I would’ve literally jumped through hoops of fire to hook up with a handsome 34-year-old like Daniel Simmons… so in retrospect, I’m glad that Grindr and Xtube weren’t around when I was a desperately horny and lonely teenage virgin, because I woulda gotten myself in SO much trouble.
Throbert McGee
@Throbert McGee: “was eagerly trading X-rated selfies (relatively low-res, over a slooow modem)”
Thus, sadly, I have no chance of ever becoming America’s First Openly Gay Republican President, because there are lots and LOTS of compromising photos and videos of me floating around the Innerwebs.
On the other hand, I’m blackmail-proof, because I certainly ain’t one of those blow-dried Log Cabin Republicans who did pr0n in the past but then found Jesus and will never, ever do it again. So I’m fairly sure that I could obtain a high-level security clearance if I had to. (The secret is DON’T EVER LIE to the nice Federal officials who are vetting you.)
So, if the question came up during my Presidential campaign, I’d say to the reporters with a clear conscience: “Why, yes, I’m proud to wave my tumescent penis around for the enjoyment of adult men. And though I have even done a little bit of paid porn work, I insist that I’m not a whore; I’m a sex-trepreneur, dammit! God Bless America!”
Of course, I’d lose the election, but I’d still have my integrity.
hrnpip
Not to excuse an adult for taking advantage of a teenager, BUT what is a 17, 16, 15, 14, etc. year old kid doing on an ADULT (or supposedly ADULT) hookup app? Are these teens honestly stating their age? No, because supposedly one needs to be at least 18 to open an account. Or that’s my understanding of these apps. These kids aren’t getting picked up in playgrounds or school yards. There’s no innocence here on either side.
Throbert McGee
P.S. My boner-selfies in those days were “relatively low-res” not in the sense that they were taken with a very cheap camera-phone, but in the sense that they were grainy stills grabbed from a VHS videotape and transferred from the VCR to the PC using an external analog-to-digital converter called a “Snappy.”
Just so you spoiled young whippersnappers know what it used to be like back in ye olden tymes…
BlackDragon727
To clarify, rape in the fourth degree in Delaware is defined as: “Intentionally engages in sexual intercourse with another person, and the victim has not yet reached that victim’s sixteenth birthday”
A.K.A. Statutory rape.
In fact, the age difference between Daniel Simmons and the boy he met on Grindr is less than that between Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black.
Now there are circumstances where statutory rape is wrong. But Grindr is supposed to be available only for people 18 or over. So I’m guessing Mr. Simmons thought the boy was 18 or older. Frankly, who checks ID during a date or hook-up?
Throbert McGee
@BlackDragon727:
Thanks for the clarification, BlackDragon727. So I see four possibilities, here:
(A) The 16-year-old was totally into it because Mr. Simmons (from a gay teen’s perspective) is a hot DILF, but the boy’s parents found out about the affair and totally had a cow and wouldn’t accept their son’s protests that everything was consensual;
(B) The kid was initially into it, but had a change of heart because he came from a very homophobic household and decided to take out his cognitive dissonance on poor Mr. Simmons;
(C) The kid was initially into it, but had a change of heart because Mr. Simmons turned out to be a creepy and manipulative jerk who cajoled the kid into trying various sex acts that the kid wasn’t emotionally ready for;
(D) Mr. Simmons, although foolish, was essentially blameless, and the kid is an attention-whore who figured he could make easy money on the talk-show circuits by ruining the career of a public official.
DK
@hrnpip: What are underage age kids doing on dating apps? What are they doing taking drugs? Using alcohol? Sneaking out of their parents’ house at night? Being places they’re not supposed to be? You might as well be asking “what are teeangers doing acting like teenagers?” Why some gay men insist on putting their fates in the hands of teenagers continues to mystify me.
@Throbert McGee: “I didn’t know” is not a valid excuse for statutory rape according to case law. Now, if it turns out the “victim” looks much older than he is — which is possible because Grindr boots profiles that even look underage until ID is provided — or that the defendant asked his age and was lied to, then he might get some leniency from the court. So I guess to answer your question on who checks the ID of hookups, I don’t know. But if your date looks anywhere near 14 years old, or if he sounds like an 8th grader, maybe that would be the time to ask, or better yet, walk away.
DK
@Throbert McGee: You can’t be both foolish and blameless in a situation. In such a case, you are to blame at least for your foolishness.
Throbert McGee
@DK: Yeah, I see your point — “blameless” wasn’t the best choice of words. I meant to say that even though it was massively foolish for a state prosecutor to get sexually involved with a kid who looked anywhere near to being below the age of consent, it’s still theoretically possible that Daniel Simmons at least Acted Like a Perfect Gentleman and was thus “blameless” of psychologically coercing the youth, or plying him with beer, vodka, and Rohypnol to make him more compliant, etc.
However, I did a little late-night Googling (I’m on “stay-cation” this week), and found a more detailed story about the case. Apparently, a college-aged third party had been engaging in cyberchat with the 16-year-old for some time, before suggesting that they go to “Dan’s house” for a hot three-way. And then this happened:
I’m guessing that slow, sensual handjobs and gentle frot were NOT what they were doing.
So, this clearly wasn’t a chance encounter where the 34-year-old was quite surprised to find that the guy he’d been talking dirty with online was only 16, but then decided that there’d really be no harm in having a super-hot makeout and J/O session with the younger guy, in order to “mentor” him about safer sex and not being in a rush to go all the way to home plate on a first date, etc.
Instead, Daniel Simmons (like Bryan Singer) thinks that gay teenage boys are FleshLights for the use of adult men who want to indulge their sublimated-pedo fantasies, and carve another notch on the headboard.
I guess we can just cross our fingers and hope that Simmons is (a) heterosexually married, and (b) a Republican. But considering that the current AG of Delaware is the (very sexy!) Beau Biden, I have my doubts…
Mezaien
The only way to treat mental illness like his (diagnose as Christianity) is to cut his balls off. I got seedeater.
Aromaeus
The kid was 16 and Simmons was a prosecutor working for the Dept. of Justice, he should know better. I don’t care if the kid waved his bare ass in his face, he should have had some goddamn restraint. However considering he’s got some kind of thing for high school aged boys maybe restraint isn’t he problem, he’s just a creep.
Polaro
Statutory rape is not the same as rape. Statutory rape is not violent and against the person’s will. It is a crime of poor judgment and possibly deception. Don’t blow this out of proportion with all the hand wringing and self-righteous clap trap.
BlackDragon727
@Aromaeus: Why would he “know better”? Being a prosecutor doesn’t give you magic powers. Unless you decide to abuse your position to spy on people who you meet.
The point of Grindr is anonymous hook-ups. No one meets people on Grindr and then asks to check ID.
It’s easy to say that he “should’ve known” but how? This is a clear example of an individual being railroaded because of an unjust law.
A good Statutory Rape law should exempt circumstances where the minor holds him/herself out to be an adult, i.e. meeting people at a bar, or meeting people on Grindr. When the adult intentionally looks for a minor to have sex with, then those circumstances should be criminally prosecuted.
Billy Budd
Here in Brazil we can date 14 YO boys and up. But I don’t feel attracted to 14 year-olds. I prefer 19 to 25 yo’s. And even then, they are very cute, extremely attractive, but hopeless in bed.
NumberOne69
@Mezaien:
Cutting a pedophile’s balls off doesn’t “treat” the illness because the compulsion is still there, the labido may be lower, but the compulsion for boys is still there and that never goes away. Castration would be more of a hazard reduction therapy, not a hazard elimination therapy. Btw – there is medication available that produces the same effects as castration, without cutting off the balls obviously (chemical castration). Some jurisdictions tried to make taking this kind of medication mandatory for pedophiles and other sex offenders, but it was ruled that such a mandate violated the perps rights.
I wonder what is happening to the college student in this story, as he could also be charged with 4th degree rape, if he, too, had sex with the kid. Even if he didn’t have intercourse with the kid, but engaged in other sexual acts with him (even as little as just being there/watching when the man & boy were having sex), he could be charged for engaging in sexual acts with a minor. I’d bet he was able to cut a deal in exchange for his testimony against the bigger fish. Just a guess.
NumberOne69
@BlackDragon727:
When one is a Deputy Attorney General of a state, one doesn’t need to have “magic powers” to know that one shouldn’t be trolling on Grindr looking for high school aged boys to fuck around with. It is self-evident that this is high-risk behavior, especially for someone with his standing in Delaware’s Justice Department. Keep in mind that Simmons was not a prosecutor, which would be a lower position. But as a Deputy Attorney General, he was at the upper end of the state’s Justice Dept food chain. Any rational person knows that you don’t go fucking around with high schoolers (even if they are 18) if you are a Justice Dept official. So, Simmons isn’t being railroaded by some unjust law. He knew better than most what the law is and he chose to engage in stupid, high-risk behavior…. and he got caught for breaking a law he knew all too well. It doesn’t matter if the kid pulled down his pants and wiggled his ass in from of Simmons’ face, his behavior is still held up to a standard. A standard that is not even higher because of his position, but rather the same standard that applies to everyone. Simmons’ judgement was so bad here that the guy is either really stupid and/or he’s really sick, which is what pedophilia is, a mental illness. I would say that even if the kid pulled out i.d. that said he was 18, it is a stupid career move for a Justice Dept official to be fucking around with a kid of that age. So, this guy isn’t being railroaded, he’s just getting what anybody else would get if they got caught in similar circumstances.
BJ McFrisky
Can’t rape the willing.
NumberOne69
@BJ McFrisky:
To the contrary, the law does say that you can rape the willing…. if they are under 18 yrs old. It’s called statutory rape, or 4th degree rape as it”s called in Delaware. And this is the same basic law that is in all 50 states. So, it’s not like Delaware’s statutory rape law (i.e.- 4th degree rape) is out in left field.
The underlying premise of statutory rape laws is that the law declares that minors are legally incapable of giving legal consent to anything, not just sex. Minors can’t enter into legal contracts or do anything that requires consent. So, if minors are legally incapable of giving consent to anything, then it doesn’t matter what comes out of their mouth when it comes to sex because the law states that they can’t consent to it. They could want sex and say so, but legally they can’t consent to it. For an adult to act on a minor’s desire for sex is statutory rape because the minor can’t legally consent to it and therefore the minor was legally raped, plain and simple. This is not some obscure law; it’s widely known… and is absolutely known by a Deputy Attorney General.
If you want to argue that the law should be changed, you can do so and are free to try to change the law. But statutory rape laws have been on the books ever since adults first started trying to fuck boys & girls. So, there is a lot of history here. So, don’t say that statutory rape is not rape, because the law says it is just that…rape, regardless of whether the minor wants to have sex.
BJ McFrisky
@NumberOne69: Um, it was just an expression. Not trying to pass judgment on victim or perpetrator.
AbercrombieMike
As others have posted above, more facts have came out in this case:
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/crime/2014/05/05/details-emerge-delaware-deputy-attorney-general-sex-case/8727479/
bnard620
So I don’t get it, he was charged for having sex with a 16 year old correct. But he didn’t rape him in the sense that he forced himself on the teenager. This would be statutory rape then I believe, but also if he knew that teenager was under age. But if he didn’t know he was underage and the teenager never said anything than who is at fault. But then again I don’t know the whole story. Besides there are a lot of people that sleep around with people that are in their late teens and early 20’s, whether they are gay or straight. I mean it doesn’t make it right or anything but it doesn’t make it legally wrong either
DK
@bnard620: If the “late teen” is a minor child under the age of consent in that jurisdisction, it does, in fact, make it legally wrong.
That question might be moot in this case, as investigating officials are arresting that the respondent was actively seeking underage boys and was told by the petitioner that he was 16 years old.
bnard620
@DK: well that would be different, if he was actively looking for underage teens. Then of course he should be arrested. But like I said I’m not sure of the whole story
NumberOne69
@bnard620:
I don’t know what is not to understand. All the basics of the case are in the article and further embellishment is provided in the article that AbercrombieMike posted. Maybe you didn’t read AbercrombieMike’s post. Here is the summary:
(1) the defendant, a Delaware Deputy Attorney General, and a college student “friend”, went trolling on Grindr to find a hook up.
(2) the college student told police that the defendant was looking to hook up with a high school age boy.
(3) While there are some 18 yr olds in high school, the vast majority of high school boys are under 18. So, it isn’t self evident that the defendant was trolling for minors when he said he was looking for high school age boys. Theoretically, he could have been looking for an 18 yr old high school senior.
(4) the defendant & college student hooked up with a high school kid to have a 3-way. It isn’t stated whether the defendant knew the kid was only 16 at the time of initial hook up.
(5) even if the defendant didn’t know the kid’s age at hook up, this is extremely risky behavior for anyone, let alone a Deputy Attorney General, to engage in.
(6) during the course of sex, the high schooler told the defendant to go easy on him because he was only 16. Presumably the college student would be a witness to this statement by the kid.
(7) as a Deputy Attorney General, the defendant, if he didn’t know before, knew the instant the kid said he was only 16 that the law was being broken for sure.
(8) you are correct in that there is no claim that the defendant forced the kid to have sex with him, making this episode effectively statutory rape. However, in Delaware there is no such thing as statutory rape per se. It is call 4th degree rape in that state.
(7) to answer your question about who is at fault when one doesn’t know a kid is under age and the kid doesn’t say that he is underage… under the law, the adult is ALWAYS at fault and if caught it will be statutory rape (or it’s equivalent) every time. It is statutory rape even if the kid lies about his age and says he 18 when, in fact, he’s not.
The burden of proof is for the adult to know that his young trick is not under age. Which means either asking for some proof of age or taking the risk that one’s trick might be under age. A hazard of the trade when dealing with sex & kids. So, “I didn’t know” or “He lied about his age” or “He didn’t tell me he wasn’t 18” are not legal arguments that will get an adult off the hook.
As adults, we have the burden of proof to know that the kid one might be having sex with is not a minor. This is something the defendant very well knew when he started trolling for high school age boys and is the reason the guy lost his job, will probably do some jail time and will now have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Is fucking a 16-year-old really worth this kind of bad drama? (I shutter to hear the answer some might give).
DK
@NumberOne69: Thank you for this clear headed response. It’s clear that some gay guys with a NAMBLA fixation want to excuse, defend, and rationalize their irresponsible choices. It’s time they own up to and accept the risks they are taking by forgoing the millions of gay adults to hookup with teenagers and kids and stop blaming double-standards and claiming witch hunts and homophobia.
The trouble that Bryan Singer and others of his ilk are in is a result of their own irresponsibility, and they need to stop trying to draw all gay men into their web of unwise choices. The trouble they are increasingly in has nothing to do with them being gay. It has everything to do with their inability to do a cost-benefit analysis on mixing sex with adolescents.
Most gay adult men do not have hards on for kids. Those who do but fail to exercise due diligence in determining whether the kid is nature enough to handle it or whether the kid is going to get them in a mess of trouble deserve no sympathy.
Billysees
@Billy Budd:
Good question —
” How can you get an erection without any intimacy… ”
I often wonder how anyone can rape another, assuming there is some kind of force involved and also an unfamiliarity with the other person. Where’s the intimacy here? The whole thing sounds like the perfect turn-off.
Kangol
@AbercrombieMike:
Thanks for the clarification.
So this state official wanted to have sex with a high school-age boy and was volunteering at a school where he could work with them. The 16-year-old Catholic school boy told this creep he was “16” and asked that the man take it easy.
No excuses, especially given that Simmons is a lawyer and one of the chief legal officials in his state. Utterly unconscionable.
Throbert McGee
@Kangol:
The only thing I would add to the excellent summaries of the case by Kangol, DK, and NumberOne69 is this:
If Daniel Simmons had said to the 16-year-old gay boy: “You’re a f*g and are going to hell because Sodom and Gomorrah and Jesus loves you but hates the sin, blah-de-blah,” pretty much everyone here would be calling for Simmons’ head on a platter and fretting about how kid was probably scarred for life and might commit suicide, etc.
But since Simmons merely had rough sex with a high-school boy whom he’d deliberately sought out in order to satisfy his fetish for rough sex with high-school boys, a disturbing number of gay men are happy to circle the wagons around Simmons and say “well, the kid was pretty close to being above the age of consent in Delaware, and anyways a 16-year-old is old enough to know what he’s doing sexually, and no one forced the kid to download the Grindr app…”
Glanvill
@NumberOne69:
Unlike the US Dept of Justice (i.e., the federal government) where a Deputy Attorney General is pretty high up the chain, all attorneys in the Delaware Department of Justice are designated as Deputy Attorneys General. So Simmons wasn’t a “high level” official; he was an attorney in the misdemeanor trial unit in the Criminal Division which is pretty far down on the organizational chart. And as other folks have noted, 4th degree rape under Delaware law is the state version of statutory rape.
Simmons might well have thought that it was reasonably safe to have sex with the 16 year old; after all, the kid’s contact on Grindr appears to have been with the college student. But one hardly needs to look very hard to find similar stories in the news involving teachers, ministers, counselors, police officers…. The lesson to be learned is that someone will always learn of the encounter. In short, Simmons was just plain dumb to hook up with a 16 year old.
JamJewel
It could be said that every guy I had sex with between nine and whatever-the-legal-age-was back in the sixties raped me because that was the law and I liked older guys. But was I, really? When I was twelve or thirteen a guy that was my aunt’s boyfriend offered to take me shopping, much to my parent’s consternation – they had no clue what was up; even though we never got together, I regretted it because he was super cute and looked him up again when I was sixteen. I also have to say that I was a big sexy strapping kid with attributes when I was that age so I can imagine his fascination with me. MY fascination with older guys ended around forty! LOL