The 21-year-old Bradenton woman sentenced to 24 days in jail and labeled a sex offender for having sex in public has filed an appeal to the 2nd District Appellate Court.
Her 40-year-old male lover was expected to receive a July 6 sentence of two-and-a-half years in state prison and a sex-offender designation — which, according to his attorney, he’ll also be appealing.
Elissa Alvarez and Jose Caballero of Bradenton both faced 15 years in state prison after a Manatee County jury found them guilty May 4 for a lewd and lascivious exhibition in view of a child less than age 16.
Gregory Halopian of Gallagher Halopian of Bradenton filed Alvarez’s appeal June 26, challenging the three-day trial and the judge’s sentence.
He said that while Alvarez supporters were happy her sentence withheld the possible felony conviction and imposed no more jail time, the sex offender designation that lumps her in with pedophiles “doesn’t even follow from the allegations.”
“We still take issue with the fact that she’s been designated a sex offender for life. We have to do something,” Halopian added.
Alvarez was sentenced to credit for time served, including one day on the date of her arrest and about 23 days in the Manatee County jail while she awaited sentencing.
In her sentencing, 12th Circuit Judge Gilbert A. Smith Jr. accepted Assistant State Attorney Anthony DaFonseca’s recommendation.
The adjudication being withheld was not out of the ordinary for a first-time offender like Alvarez and the sex-offender determination was required under Florida law, he said.
DaFonseca also recommended Caballero’s sentence May 27 in court.
His attorney, Ron Kurpiers of Kurpiers Law Firm in Tampa said June 30 he’ll be accepting the state’s recommendation.
Caballero’s sentencing was set after press time for this week’s Islander.
“I can’t reject two-and-a-half years — that would be suicide. It’s a whole world better than 15 years,” said Kurpiers before the sentencing.
After the May 27 hearing, DaFonseca cited several reasons for the different sentence recommendations for the two defendants, including Alvarez’s youth and lack of criminal record as opposed to an extensive record for Caballero.
The prosecution originally filed a notice under the prison release-reoffender law that could have resulted in a mandatory 15-year prison sentence for Caballero due to his recent prison release, which was the result of a cocaine trafficking conviction.
However, the state decided not to prosecute under that law.
The case grew out of a complaint made by family members at a reunion for visitors from Brandon and West Virginia at Cortez Beach in Bradenton Beach in July 2014.
A mother, grandmother and great-grandmother reported the couple’s romp to the Bradenton Beach Police Department while a 3-year-old child was watching.
A three-day trial began April 29 at which the family members testified the child and other families were present while the couple conducted sex several times on the beach.
Friend-of-court brief filed
An amicus brief — a friend of the court filing — was filed in the sex-on-the-beach case involving Elissa Alvarez and Jose Caballero.
It challenges the court to look at human nature for guidance, as far back as our ape ancestry.
Mary Ann Vorasky, a paralegal from Santa Monica, California, filed a 30-page document in the case of the amorous Bradenton couple.
Spurred by a Huffington Post report that mentioned a grandmother had filmed a sexual encounter on Cortez Beach in July 2014, the brief stated:
“In one scientific study of the bonobos, it was reported that a grandmother bonobo participated with the couple … other bonobos were also present at the time as onlookers. As is typical in bonobo society, this was an experience of shared intimacy and bonding that was accepted.”
Vorasky’s brief compared the bonobo grandmother to the grandmother who caught the couple’s lovemaking on a cellphone video, stating “humans are sexual creatures and want to share their sexuality with others.”
Vorasky concluded, “Yet throughout our history, punishment and shaming have been used to control human sexual expression, and to privatize it for the marriage and family model,” leading to lack of emotional and sexual maturing in adults and children.
Advocating community service for Caballero and Alvarez, Vorasky argued the penalties they face — sex-offender registration and incarceration — waste public resources and far exceed the nature of the offense.