For Immoral Porpoises

Moreno Valley, CA

There's this old joke, the kind that drags on for half an hour before the punchline, about a prince who's tasked by evil dolphins to pass a sleeping guard lion, steal some seagull chicks and bring them back. When he gets there, though, the cops grab him and charge him with, "transporting young gulls across a staid lion for immoral porpoises".

I don't think this guy knows the joke.

Darryl E. Kelly, 42, a registered sex offender in Illinois, was picked up with his 15-year-old "companion" in Moreno Valley. The girl, who hadn't been seen by her family since December, was tracked down via her cell phone records and Myspace page, which police discovered was being accessed in the L.A. area.

That devil Myspace. When will these wacky kids learn? Hopefully never or we're all fucked.

Anyway, seems the girl came out with him on her own.

The girl's mother reported her missing Dec. 17, 2007, after she had not seen her for three days, police said. She also informed officers that her daughter had been keeping company with Kelly and that she talked of moving to California.

Now that speaks volumes. I'm sorry, ma'am, what exactly was your 15-year-old daughter doing hanging out with a 42-year-old convicted rapist, again? What was so bad about home that this, even to a 15-year-old girl manipulated by a sexual predator, was the better option?

There's always more to this kind of story and it's never simple. I can't imagine the fucked up chain of events that got them here. Reminds me of a group of runaway 15-year-old girls I met, what, twenty years ago? Friend of mine had taken them in for a week after she met them down at Little Frida's in Hollywood.

Like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Four girls all clustered around the oldest, a Mama Bear trying to protect her charges as best she could. She was taking them up from Texas, moving as far as buses, hitchhiking and sleeping under freeways could take them. The usual litany of foster homes and abuse. She was understandably tight lipped, but you don't have to know much of a person's story when you can see it in her eyes.

And this sort of thing plays out every day.