Two young men charged with sodomizing 18 boys at a youth camp last year have been offered a plea agreement that may net them little jail time and no record of sexual assault.

Clifton Bennett, 18, the son of Arizona Senate President Ken Bennett, and his co-defendant, Kyle Wheeler, 19, were charged in January with 18 counts of aggravated assault and 18 counts of kidnapping for the incidents, which happened at a youth camp last June.

The younger Bennett confessed to police that he and Wheeler sodomized the 11- to 14-year-old boys with broomsticks and flashlights in at least 40 incidents, court documents show.

Yavapai County prosecutors now say they'll drop all but one assault charge and likely recommend little or no jail time if Bennett agrees to plead guilty.

Yes, an honor student and active LDS church member who just was horsing around, sodomizing younger boys with broomsticks and flashlights. What a travesty of justice, considering that a young adult not affiliated with such a powerful politician would be treated much more severely or even another young adult that made the mistake of using an illegal drug.

You can read the Yavapai prosecutor (Sheila Polk) response to the generated outrage over this case, in the comment feedback of a superb E.J. Montini column on the matter. I find her categorization of "non-sexual" to be troubling — a broomstick shove up the ass, even if it through clothing, is still a sexual assualt, no matter how it's diced. And the gravity of the crime is immense, considering that adults, serving in a supervisory role, wielded a wrath of terror over young pre-teenager boys.

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