Vero Beach, FL – 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt was arrested in February at her home in Vero Beach and faces two felony counts of “lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12-16 years of age.” The family has until May 24 before they have to make a decision on whether or not to accept a plea bargain that was offered by the state (which would leave Hunt with felony child abuse charges on her record as well as two years of house arrest), or to risk it all and go to court. The story was kept relatively quiet until May 17 when Hunt’s parents created a “Free Kate” Facebook page as well as an online petition, which currently has just under 110,000 signatures. Kaitlyn and her girlfriend were on the same basketball team, and did not hide their affection for each other. When their coach took notice of the relationship, father Steven Hunt stated, “The coach came up to Kaitlyn during a practice and said,. ‘I heard that you and so and so are in a relationship and I will not have that on my team; therefore, you have to quit.’” The coach kicked Kaitlyn off of the team, went to the other girl’s parents, telling them of the relationship between the girls. After their underage daughter refused to stop seeing Hunt, her parents formed a plan. They waited until Kaitlyn was 18 year old so that she would be tried as an adult, and then called the police to file the report.