Law: Briefs

SEX EDUCATION

Clovis, N. Mex., police picked up rumors last year that a frisky housewife had been entertaining juveniles at sex parties in her home. After an inquiry, a Curry County grand jury indicted Mrs. Ernestine Favela, 23, married, mother of two small children, on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a 15-year-old boy. But two weeks ago, a divided state appeals court threw out the indictment. Judge Ramon Lopez explained that delinquency was defined as conduct that would be criminal in an adult, and noted that New Mexico had eliminated criminal penalties for consensual sex between adults. Concurring, Judge Lewis Sutin called intercourse with a young boy “nothing more than sex education essential and necessary in his growth toward maturity and subsequent domestic family life.” This was too much for the New Mexico Supreme Court. On its own motion, the state high court last week reversed the appeals court and reinstated Mrs. Favela’s indictment. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison plus a $5,000 fine.

ALIMONY BLUES

Only two weeks after she was awarded $160 a month in alimony in 1974, Mrs. Anna Northrup of Rochester, N.Y., began living openly with another man. In her new quarters, she shared a bedroom, cooked meals, did the wash and shared household expenses. Her former husband soon stopped the alimony, contending he was legally justified because she was “habitually living with another man and holding herself out as his wife,” grounds for cutoff under state law. In a 5-to-2 decision last week, New York’s highest court disagreed. The law provides a two-part test, the Court of Appeals majority held, and even though she lived with the other man, she had never suggested to anyone that they were married. Back alimony payments? Northrup’s attorney said he had not heard from his client in years, and chances of any collection by Mrs. Northrup appear dubious at best.