Kudos to Luke

You're final point is your best point. 

With all of the known evidence, it seems to me that the preponderance of evidence seems to favor the conclusion that Luke molested his niece.  Others look at it and want to and do give Luke the benefit of the doubt.  At the end of the day, our opinions do not matter all-that-much.

I agree with you that, even if he did do it (and he did), are his actions so abhorrent that he should not be drafted?  I think Pat Casey's comments about guys in the Rangers' organization show that other kids that also did abhorrent things were drafted.  So what makes Luke different?

You can talk about low recidivism, but that only applies to juveniles who admit what they did.  If they do not admit it, recidivism skyrockets. 

I think jimbeav makes some great points.  A big problem with Luke is that he won't pick a lane.  He either needs to be the villain, admit what he did, and admit that he was wrong.  Or he needs to be the victim of his villainous ex-aunt.  He needs to say what she did, when she did it, and why.  The fact that he won't makes me believe all-the-more that he is guilty.  And I would hazard to say that, at the end of the day, that is why he was not drafted.  He did not provide a coherent story to any of the major league teams.  They can work with past transgressions, if Luke provided them with a story, but he can't or won't.

A point that someone brought up is that maybe Luke is denial.  That is entirely possibility.  He did it, but his 15-year-old mind blocked it out.

Finally, man, home-schooled kids.  There are lots of good ones, but there are also lots of bad ones.  For the bad ones, it is like their mind just never works quite like how you would like it to.

Pat Casey ought to call out ESPN publicly for parading Luke's situation on national television.  He should be expressing moral outrage that, in all of our concern about sexual matters, we've lost our willingness to forgive a 15-year kid, and instead apparently choose to punish him FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, to DENY HIM AN OPPORTUNITY to use exercise his skills in his chosen profession, and to IGNORE that fact that he is, today, AN UPSTANDING CITIZEN and a FINE YOUNG MAN.  ESPN, the MLB, and others are ignoring the simple fact that he is, today, not the same person he was as a 15-year old.  They judge him without knowing him, without ever having met him, and are in the ignominous position of knowing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the details of his case and the relevant science.  Pat Casey, as a prominent figure in college baseball, could call out ESPN and publicly embarrass them, which is EXACTLY what someone needs to do.

I like Pat Casey calling out the Rangers' hypocrisy.  Past that, Casey ought to coach the damn team.  He should be more worried about Minnesota than whether Heimlich gets a free agent contract.  I am sure that Casey will work to get Heimlich a shot somewhere in the offseason, whether it be in the United States or Japan.

I actually fear some of this battle was lost a year ago.
When Luke withdrew from the CWS, when the administration and coach PC saw this as a distraction....
If (and that is a big IF) the context that is emerging now was available to the leadership (OSU, PC) then, we should have staunchly supported Luke and his participation in the CWS. And made clear why.

(I actually thought our general decision making down the stretch faltered during last year's CWS - the missed fair/foul ball, trotting out a tired arm vs. throwing Johnny Wholestaff, how the Luke situation was dealt with, not getting a coach or two ejected over that one ump's egregious "strike" zone.....)

Now, as the point was made earlier in this thread, there are well-entrenched assumptions about guilt that various institutions can use as "news" and info graphics to generate debate and visibility.....

Weird maneuver by Texas Rangers as well. I do some intellectual property work for my company, and sometimes we do a "defensive publication" where we don't want some other company to benefit from potentially patentable work we have decided not to file on, so we make sure there is "prior art"......it feels like Texas decided to take a pass on Luke, but they wanted to make sure no other MLB team was going to benefit from their decision, so they did a "defensive publication".

Lot of cynical people/organizations angling for their own benefit, and forgetting (or having compassion for the fact) that a couple of youngsters have lost a lot in this mess.

Go Beavers!

I need some more clarification on how juvenile courts work too. Had he fought it and gone to trial, that would not be public, correct? So how exactly did pleading guilty help him more than being found guilty change the outcome now? My uneducated guess is that, while he may have spent a few months in a juvenile facility, by and large the outcome as an adult would be the same: stay clean for a few years and we seal the record.

Also, I can’t overlook the fact that he pleaded guilty when he and his advisors thought that was the most beneficial situation to him, and now he’s proclaiming his innocence when that is what he and his advisors think is the most beneficial situation.

He said nothing about his innocence last year before the draft, instead releasing that statement about accepting the things he had done and striving to be a better person. Then he didn’t get drafted. So now a new strategy of granting interviews to everyone saying he’s innocent?

It makes my heart hurt that both Luke and his niece seem to be victims of the agendas of other people in their lives.

The Tribune article indicates that he was facing 40 weeks.  Other articles that I have read also indicate that that would have been the sentence, as well, but maybe they are just quoting the Tribune article?