A 38-year-old married Michigan mother of two was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for sleeping with two teenage boys.
Brooke Lajiness reportedly utilized the popular social media app Snapchat to tempt and lure the boys with nude and seductive sexual photos of herself. She confessed to having sexual relations with the boys aged 14 and 15. She also reportedly had an affair with a third male who is not a minor, and no charges were expected for that interaction.
Lajiness would arrive at the boys’ parent’s house late at night. The boys would quietly slip outside, get into her car, and engage in sexual activities with the woman who was more than 20 years their senior.
MLive reports the outcome of her case, in Washtenaw County Trial Court, sees Judge David Swartz sentence Lajiness to four years and nine months, up to 15 years, for her guilty plea on multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct. Assistant Washtenaw County Prosecutor John Vella requested the maximum of 98 months to 15 years and claimed she was predatory towards the boys. Judge Swartz disagreed. He proceed his sentencing based on a clean record and potential for therapy to address the mental state of the defendant and her case of insomnia.
Lajiness trembled and verged on tears while reading a written statement to Judge David Swartz prior to sentencing.
“This has been the biggest regret of my life,” she said. “My family means everything to me, and I’ve caused them great pain for these regretful choices I have made.”
Lajiness claims the sexual escapade is her biggest regret, but that didn’t stop her from doing it twice. She left her husband and two kids at home while she stealthily slept with underage boys in the midst of the night. Her family could be the biggest victim in this criminal act of adultery, but that didn’t stop a mother of the younger boy from voicing her harsh opinion on Lajiness.
The mother of the younger victim blasted Lajiness with her staggering statement:
“You made a conscious effort on several occasions to make arrangements to meet my son,” the mother wrote, “sneak out of your house, start your car, leave your husband and children at home and drive to my son’s father’s house, back into the driveway between midnight and 4 a.m., wait for my son to run the driveway, commit a crime and leave. Did you know that this was wrong? Did you ever worry about the harm you were doing to my son?”
The mother claimed her son is bullied at school for his participation in the sexual encounters with a much older married mother and wife. She stated that the scandal has shaken the town of Chelsea and her son suffered emotional and psychological damage.
“The guys at school pick on him and say it’s cool that he had sex with a mom,” she said.
The mother requested that Lajiness be treated the same as a predatory older man caught sexually assaulting teen girls. Lajiness’ attorney, Ypsilanti-based David I. Goldstein, disputed that by comparing how men and women handle sexuality as adults and children. In other words, he essentially stated, but not in these words, that the boys may not truthfully be victims. What happened is still illegal, but that doesn’t mean the boys were true victims the same way a teen girl would be a victim if an older man courted or raped her.
The case becomes more interesting when Lajiness’ mental state is in question. She’s reportedly medicated for insomnia. Both she and her husband wrote letters to the judge suggesting that her insomnia is partly to blame for her sexual encounters with teen boys. Lajiness and her attorney admit the actions were wrong, but suggested proper therapy could proactively prevent her from repeating the illegal actions in the future.
Judge Swartz agreed and also considered Lajiness’s lack of a criminal history in his sentencing.
Lajiness pleaded guilty in June to third-degree criminal sexual conduct for oral sex with the 15-year-old, two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct for intercourse with the 14-year-old, one count of accosting a child for immoral purposes and one count of furnishing obscenity to children for sending nude photographs of herself to a minor.
As part of a plea agreement, 10 other counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person between 13 and 15 years old were dismissed.
Lajiness was taken into custody immediately after sentencing.