Montana judge defends 30-day sentence for rape

[merithyn]

Oh, now I get it! It wasn't rape-rape! Well, that makes all the difference in the world.

Link

August 28, 2013 2:05 PM
Todd Baugh, Mont. judge, defends handing down 30-day sentence to teacher in rape of student
By Erin Donaghue

(CBS/AP) -- A Montana judge who sentenced former teacher Stacey Rambold to 30 days in the rape case of a 14-year-old student is defending his decision as outrage grows over his comments that the girl was "older than her chronological age."

In 2010, the girl killed herself at age 16 as the case was pending, and her mother told District Judge G. Todd Baugh Monday her relationship with Rambold was a "major factor" in her suicide.

Baugh handed down the sentence Monday after former Billings Senior High School teacher Rambold, 54, was terminated from a sexual offender treatment program that was part of a deal to have his prosecution deferred. The judge said he wasn't convinced that the reasons for Rambold's termination from the program were serious enough to warrant a 10-year prison term recommended by prosecutors.

In handing down the sentence, Baugh also said the 14-year-old victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control of the situation" as the teacher. The girl's mother, Auleia Hanlon, stormed out of the courtroom yelling, "You people suck!," the Billings-Gazette reported.

Baugh told the newspaper Tuesday that he stood by his comments that the victim was a troubled youth who was older than her age when it came to sexual matters. That didn't make Rambold's sex with the teen any less of a crime, he said.

"Obviously, a 14-year-old can't consent. I think that people have in mind that this was some violent, forcible, horrible rape," Baugh told the paper. "It was horrible enough as it is just given her age, but it wasn't this forcible beat-up rape."

The victim's death complicated the case, Baugh said. The prosecution and defense reached an agreement after her death that Rambold would enter sexual-offender treatment.

If the former teacher completed treatment and complied with other conditions, the case would have been closed.

Rambold was terminated from the program in November when it was learned that he had been having unsupervised visits with minors, who were family members, and did not inform counselors that he had been having sexual relations with a woman.

"I think what people are seeing is a sentence for rape of 30 days. Obviously on the face of it, if you look at it that way, it's crazy," Baugh said. "No wonder people are upset. I'd be upset, too, if that happened."

The judge's ruling has drawn fire from advocates, with some calling for a review of the sentence. An online Moveon.org petition for the judge's resignation has garnered more than 9,000 signatures, and a silent protest was scheduled for Thursday on the Yellowstone County Courthouse lawn, reports CBS affiliate KTVQ.

"As I looked on in disbelief, Judge Baugh stated that our teenage daughter was as much in control of the situation as her teacher was," Hanlon said in a statement, reports the paper. "She wasn't even old enough to get a driver's license. But Judge Baugh, who never met our daughter, justified the paltry sentence saying she was older than her chronological age. I guess somehow it makes a rape more acceptable if you blame the victim, even if she was only 14."

Hanlon also spoke to KTVQ, saying tearfully, "My faith in the justice system is gone."

[merithyn]

No-no... that's not what he meant at all. He just meant that it wasn't rape-rape. See?

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge apologized Wednesday for saying a 14-year-old rape victim was "older than her chronological age" and had as much control of the situation as the teacher who raped her — remarks that prompted protests and a petition for his resignation.

District Judge G. Todd Baugh made the comments Monday while sentencing former Billings Senior High School teacher Stacey Rambold to a 15-year prison sentence then suspending all but 31 days and giving him credit for one day already served.

The sentencing came after Rambold, 54, had left a sexual offender treatment program that was part of a deal to have his prosecution deferred. The judge said he wasn't convinced that the reasons for Rambold's move were serious enough to warrant the 10-year prison term recommended by prosecutors.

Faced with backlash over his comments and the sentence that protesters considered too light, Baugh wrote an apology in a brief letter to the editor to The Billings Gazette. The newspaper provided a copy of the apology to The Associated Press.

"I'm not sure just what I was attempting to say but it did not come out correct," he wrote. "What I said is demeaning of all women, not what I believe and irrelevant to the sentencing. My apologies to all my fellow citizens."

"I will add an addendum to the court file to hopefully better explain the sentence," he added.

A protest scheduled for Thursday outside Yellowstone County Courthouse will go on despite the apology, said organizer Sheena Rice, stressing that it's important for the community to show it is not going to stand for victim blaming.

"I'm glad he apologized, but he should have known better as a judge," Rice said. "The fact that he said it makes me think he still believes it."

[The Brain]

Is it named after Tony or Hannah?

[Ideologue]

We can argue hypotheticals all day.  I see absolutely no point in discussing this case specifically without knowing its facts.

AND AGAIN, IT IS NOT A 30 DAY JAIL SENTENCE IT IS A FIFTEEN YEAR SUSPENDED SENTENCE THOSE ARE NOT THE SAME THING

What shit journalism in the linked article.

[Valmy]

Oh, now I get it! It wasn't rape-rape! Well, that makes all the difference in the world.

Oh for Godsake that is hardly the point.  The victim blaming as part of the justification for the sentence is the point.  Obvious common sense indicates there are different levels of rape severity just like any other criminal activity.  But I am not sure taking sexual advantage of a minor that leads to a suicide is all that much better than forcible assault coupled with rape.

[Admiral Yi]

Oh, now I get it! It wasn't rape-rape! Well, that makes all the difference in the world.

Surely it should make quite a bit of difference.

[Eddie Teach]

  But I am not sure taking sexual advantage of a minor that leads to a suicide is all that much better than forcible assault coupled with rape.

We don't know why the girl killed herself.

[Berkut]

I was all set to be outraged, but then read the article and actually thought about what it said and I am not so outraged.

I am very, very dissapointed Meri.

[Berkut]

Oh, now I get it! It wasn't rape-rape! Well, that makes all the difference in the world.

Surely it should make quite a bit of difference.

One would certainly hope so.

[The Brain]

I'd be outraged but I'm all raged out.

[Ideologue]

But I am not sure taking sexual advantage of a minor that leads to a suicide is all that much better than forcible assault coupled with rape.

That's another assumption, though.

She committed suicide two years later.

Obviously, the most likely explanation in the absence of knowledge is that she was profoundly traumatized and her trauma eventually caught up with her.  This is fair enough, and is indeed why we criminalize statutory rape (though reasonable minds can differ as to what degree stat rape is traumatic, and I strongly expect it varies person to person--suggesting a great amount of discretion given to sentencing judges to mete out an appropriate punishment).  But we do not know anything; we can only guess.

We don't know anything except what's in the lazy, biased reporting in the articles.

[merithyn]

Oh, now I get it! It wasn't rape-rape! Well, that makes all the difference in the world.

Oh for Godsake that is hardly the point.  The victim blaming as part of the justification for the sentence is the point.  Obvious common sense indicates there are different levels of rape severity just like any other criminal activity. 

The judge can't even explain for himself what he meant. What does come across, however, is that he believes that the fault lays - at least partially - with the child. Ie, it's not really rape-rape.

But I am not sure taking sexual advantage of a minor that leads to a suicide is all that much better than forcible assault coupled with rape.

Which is pretty much my point.

[merithyn]

Oh, now I get it! It wasn't rape-rape! Well, that makes all the difference in the world.

Surely it should make quite a bit of difference.

One would certainly hope so.

The girl was 14. The teacher was 54. Are you seriously trying to tell me that you guys don't see that as a major consideration? No, he didn't beat her, but what he did do to her certainly affected her. After all, she killed herself. Surely that means something.

[merithyn]

But I am not sure taking sexual advantage of a minor that leads to a suicide is all that much better than forcible assault coupled with rape.

That's another assumption, though.

She committed suicide two years later.

Obviously, the most likely explanation in the absence of knowledge is that she was profoundly traumatized and her trauma eventually caught up with her.  This is fair enough, and is indeed why we criminalize statutory rape (though reasonable minds can differ as to what degree stat rape is traumatic, and I strongly expect it varies person to person--suggesting a great amount of discretion given to sentencing judges to mete out an appropriate punishment).  But we do not know anything; we can only guess.

We don't know anything except what's in the lazy, biased reporting in the articles.

Her mother said that she committed suicide at least in part because of her relationship with the teacher. And the suicide came about a year after the relationship ended. It started when she was 14, continued through her 15th year. She committed suicide when she was 16.

[The Brain]

It's a fairly common idea that a rapist should think that he might as well go as brutal and nasty as possible since rape shouldn't be graded at all. I remain unconvinced though.