OMAHA, Neb. – A birth certificate provided by a Mexican police officer who found a schoolteacher and the boy she is accused of having sex with shows the boy is 13, contradicting claims from her lawyers that he may be older.
The certificate provided to The Associated Press by Officer Alfredo Arenas Moreno shows the boy was born in January 1994 in Penjamo, Mexico.
“The document is real, recognized by the state government of Guanajuato, Mexico,” Arenas said in an e-mail.
Arenas, who heads the Baja California state police international liaison unit and who found the two in Mexicali on Nov. 2, said he got the certificate from the FBI.
The lawyer for Kelsey Peterson, 25, suggested this week that the boy might be 16 or older – too old for a statutory rape charge against Peterson. Statutory rape charges had not been filed in the case, but state and federal prosecutors have said they might add charges against Peterson.
“We'll see if it's genuine. It may be, it may not be,” said Peterson's lawyer, James Martin Davis. “I've got a client right now in federal court who sells those things by the hundred for $60.”
Peterson, who is being held in San Diego without bail, faces federal charges for crossing a border to have sex with a minor, punishable by 10 years to life in prison and a $250,000 fine. She also faces state charges of kidnapping, child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Peterson was expected to board a plane for transfer to Nebraska today, Davis said.
