Dirty Dishes	Dirty Dishes Archive

Fox News may not be good for much, but it was through them that Dawn learned the extraordinary tale of Trenton Veches. Mr. Veches was a former supervisor of a Newport Beach (California) youth program until April, 2002, when he was arrested after a finky co-worker reported seeing him sucking on a boy's toes.

Dawn was unaware that toe sucking was even a crime. If that ignorance was shared by Mr. Veches, he was quickly disabused of that notion when he came to trial facing 25 counts of "lewd conduct" and "assault."

View our poll archive

At trial, Veches's lawyer argued, sensibly, that his actions with boys 6 to 10 years old was "horseplay." But prosecutor Sheila Hanson thought differently.

"Clearly Mr. Veches posed a danger to the children of our community," Ms. Hanson told press after the show trial. She did not elaborate as to whether the danger was due to an undiagnosed fungal infection leading to the potential spread of athletes' foot amongst the unsuspecting youngsters; no testimony from mycologists was offered by either the prosecution or the defense.

Whatever danger Mr. Veches posed, it was judged sufficiently grave that a jury sentenced the 32-year-old man to life in prison.

Joyce Ormes, Veches's mother, thought the sentence too harsh. "I don't know how he can spend life in prison for this when there was no sexual contact with the genitals," Ms. Ormes told post-trial reporters.

Dawn is a little baffled as to why Ms. Ormes should see sucking genitals as more worthy of condemnation than sucking toes, but evidently Veches's jury thought any sucking of anything worthy of more severe punishment than had Mr. Veches beaten the boys.