A former Tennessee Titans cheerleader named Elizabeth Leigh Garner has been charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy. According to NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, Garner was indicted on charges of sexual battery and solicitation of a minor earlier this week.
Police in Murfreesboro, Tenn. said that Garner was visiting a friend’s home when she followed a 12-year-old boy into the bathroom, fondled him, and tried to seduce him. Garner later told sex crime detectives that she “was drunk that evening and that she got the boy confused with a man that was also at the residence.” In an off-camera interview with NewsChannel 5, Garner said she is innocent.
“He got up to go to the bathroom and Ms. Garner followed him into the bathroom,” the police report said. “He stated that she asked him if he had ever been with a woman.”
Garner, 42, made headlines as a Titans cheerleader in 2008 because she was a 38-year-old who made a team comprised of woman who were mostly in their 20s. Kyle Evans of the Murfreesboro Police Department spoke for most of us when he said there is no excuse for a grown woman to confuse a 12-year-old boy with an adult.
“That’s just absolutely no excuse for sexual assaulting a child,” Evans said. “If you can’t tell the difference between a 12-year-old and an adult then there are problems.”
If Garner is going to say the exchange never happened, that’s one thing. If she’s seeking sympathy claiming she was so drunk she could not tell the difference between a young boy and a grown man, good luck to her.
As you may have learned from all of our stories on ex-Bengals cheerleader Sarah Jones, situations like this are not typically taken lightly. The kid in that case was a 17-year-old high school student. A 42-year-old woman allegedly sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy is disturbing on an entirely different level.
