Ex-NFL player's teen-sex charge dropped

ROSEVILLE, Mich., March 25 (UPI) -- A sexual-misconduct charge was dropped against a former Detroit Lions football player because a judge ruled the sex with a 16-year-old girl was consensual.

Macomb County District Court Judge Marco Santia said he did not see the sexual relationship "as force or coercion," so he dismissed a charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct against Tommie Boyd, a former Fraser (Mich.) High School track coach whose National Football League career ended about a decade ago.

The girl -- now a 19-year-old woman -- said Boyd, 38, routinely forced her into sexual situations despite her resistance, The Detroit Free Press reported.

The case could only be brought to trial if the judge believed Boyd used force or coercion because the girl was 16 when the two began having sex and attended a different high school.

The age of consent in Michigan is 16, but school officials are not allowed to have sex with students regardless of age.

"We are having a difficult time understanding how a 16-year-old repeatedly saying 'no' and 'stop' to the sexual advances of a man in his 30s is not force or coercion," the Free Press quoted prosecutor Eric Smith as saying. "We will appeal and see if a higher court understands this ruling."

Boyd is to also appear in Macomb County Circuit Court April 12 in a separate sexual assault case involving a 15-year-old girl.

In that case, the former Lions wide receiver is accused of offering $5,000 to the girl to sleep with him last July. She agreed, but after they had sex, Boyd paid her $200, the girl, now 16, testified in a preliminary examination.

Boyd is charged in the case with first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct and accosting a minor for immoral purposes.

Boyd has denied wrongdoing.