An Enterprise Staff Report
LONDON — Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division; Kerry B. Harvey, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky and Perrye Turner, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, jointly announced Friday that two Harlan County women admitted they assisted others in kidnapping and assaulting a gay man because of his sexual orientation.
On Friday, U.S. District Court in London unsealed guilty pleas, previously entered by 19-year-old Mable Ashley Jenkins and 19-year-old Alexis LeeAnn Jenkins. The defendants pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting kidnapping and aiding and abetting the hate crime assault against Kevin Pennington on April 4 of last year. The women admitted they lured Pennington into a truck with two other defendants, Anthony Ray Jenkins and David Jason Jenkins. The truck was driven to where Pennington was allegedly assaulted by the male defendants.
Both women waived their right to be indicted and pleaded guilty to the charges brought by U.S. Attorney Harvey and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Mable Jenkins pleaded guilty Tuesday and Ashley Jenkins pleaded guilty Wednesday of this week. Their plea agreements remain under seal. The women admitted violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The act expanded federal jurisdiction to include certain hate crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation. This case marks the first federal convictions in the nation for a violation of this provision of the Federal hate crime law. The Shepard-Byrd law criminalizes certain acts of physical violence causing bodily injury motivated by any person’s actual or perceived race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability. Alexis and Mable Jenkins will appear for sentencing in August.
The kidnapping and hate crime offenses carry maximum penalties of up to life in prison. The indictments concerning Anthony Jenkins and David Jenkins were returned April 10. Both men pleaded not guilty at their arraignments Thursday and a trial date has been set for June 18.
This case was investigated by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Kentucky State Police. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Hydee Hawkins and Trial Attorney Angie Cha with the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.
"Being supportive of the basic civil rights of self-identified gays and lesbians does not require a belief in the false notion that homosexuality is invariably fixed in all people. It is not. Patient self-determination, the cornerstone of all mental health professionals, must rise above the political debate."
"Like most psychiatrists I thought that homosexual behavior could be resisted, but sexual orientation could not be changed. I now believe that's untrue - some people can and do change."
(Archives of Sexual Behavior 2003: 200 Participants Reporting a Change from Homosexual to Heterosexual Orientation)
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2009): "One half of the victims...often linked their homosexuality to their sexual victimization experiences...The age at the time of the molestation ranged from 4 to 16 with a mean age of 10."
Homosexuality Linked to Emotional Trauma Says Medical Studies - a SEVENFOLD Increase:
W.C. Holmes, MD said: "Abused [male] adolescents, particularly those victimized by males, were up to 7 times more likely to self-identify as gay or bisexual..."