Someone needs to explain something to me. First we have this story out of Utah:

LOGAN A 62-year-old man accused of taking teenage boys on nude snowmobile rides has pleaded guilty to lewdness, a misdemeanor.

Besides the snowmobiles, Richard Lamb and two 15-year-olds used a sauna in the nude during a trip to his cabin in Cache County last year, according to court documents.

Lamb told detectives in an Aug. 24 interview that he didn’t feel anyone was uncomfortable.

He will not receive jail time but must undergo a mental evaluation and complete any recommended treatment. He must write letters of apology and avoid unsupervised contact with minors.

The two counts of lewdness could be erased if he meets the conditions. Lamb was a bishop of a Mormon church ward in Hyde Park from 1991 to 1997.

Then we have this story out of Connecticut:

Julie Amero, a substitute teacher at a middle school in Norwich, Conn., said she had simply wanted to e-mail her husband. The authorities contend that she was — purposely or, perhaps, carelessly — exposing 11- and 12-year-old students to pornography rather than teaching them English.

Last month, Ms. Amero was convicted in Norwich Superior Court of four counts of risking injury to a child and faces up to 40 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for March 2. She has insisted on her innocence, refusing to accept a plea bargain that would have allowed her to walk free. She portrays herself as a hapless technophobe too clueless to unplug a wayward computer

Someone please explain to me why a Mormon Bishop is charged with a misdemeanor for riding around on snowmobiles and sitting in a sauna naked with a couple of teen boys when a teacher is facing a possible 40 years in prison for exposing some kids to porn, accidentally or otherwise. Granted the teacher sounds like a bit of an idiot, but last I checked being stupid wasn’t a criminal offense.

And yes I realize that we’re dealing with two different states so the laws are going to vary wildly, but this still strikes me as just plain idiotic. And I’m sure the Bishop’s status as a Bishop doesn’t play into the lighter charges he received at all.

Sure. Yeah. You betcha.