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Tag: montana judge

  • One-month Rape Sentence Reversed: Judge To Be Unseated?

    It’s hard to fathom how a man can receive a one-month sentence in a rape trial, but that’s exactly what happened in the Stacey Rambold case.

    Rambold was sentenced to a single month in prison following the 2007 sexual assault of his student, Cherice Moralez.

    Montana Judge G. Todd Baugh not only credited Rambold with serving 15 years in prison minus 31 days, but he actually alleged that the victim, was “probably as much in control of the situation” as her much older teacher.

    Moralez had killed herself and therefore was not available to actually speak on her own behalf about what happened.

    The idea that a court judge would make such a statement and ruling was appalling to many onlookers.

    On Wednesday, the Montana Supreme Court threw out the original ruling and ordered the case be re-assigned to a different judge.

    Justice Michael Wheat wrote in the opinion that the “district court lacked authority to suspend all but 31 days of Rambold’s sentence”.

    In a plea agreement, Rambold had admitted to committing one count of sexual intercourse without consent. He was to avoid jail time through participating in a treatment program.

    The case was reinstated when he violated the conditions of the program and was thrown out.

    Despite this, Baugh was willing to give all the credit to the teacher at the expense of a teenager victim.

    Baugh’s actions moved the Montana Judicial Standards Commission to recommend that the Supreme Court discipline him. The high court stated that a ruling on Baugh’s conduct would come later.

    The tragic mishandling of this case was a source of great anger to the people of Montana and especially the family of the victim.

    Hopefully, the move to throw out the original conviction and possibly discipline the judge responsible will encourage more victims of rape to come forward and believe that justice will be served.

    Image via YouTube

  • Montana Judge: Previous Gaffes Call for Dismissal

    The Montana Judge of Yellowstone County, G. Todd Baugh, that is currently under fire for assigning a 30-day sentence for a teacher who raped a student, leading to her suicide, apparently has a track record. His reasoning for the mild punishment is reported to be 1) The girl looked older than her chronological age. 2) He felt she had just as much control over the situation as the teacher.

    Ok, in fairness, we all knew that girl in High School who dressed provocatively and demanded attention, whether it was from boys her age or cute teachers. But, come on! That girl we knew didn’t have control over her life at all, right? She definitely wouldn’t be able to back out in that kind of situation. Besides that, teenage girls, by and large, don’t have many rational thoughts during any given day.

    This begs the question: So, why is this guy still on the bench? In July(yeah, last month), he sentenced a 55-year-old woman to a 3-year suspended sentence on her 13th drunk driving charge! Meaning: No jail time! Seriously? The most deplorabe thing about this case are the words he lashed her with from the bench. “If you drink and drive and kill someone, you will spend some real time in prison”. If I lived in that town, I would throw a fit. Even the likes of Wil Wheaton know….

    What’s baffling is that Baugh has regularly handed down pretty harsh (and fair) sentences to sex offenders over the years. For instance, in September of 2011, he handed down a 100-year sentence to a 26-year old man for raping an 11-year-old boy after luring him to an empty irrigation ditch from a video store.

    In 2012, he sentenced a 23-year-old man to 56 years in prison for possesion of child pornography including images of children under age 12. The minimum state mandated sentence is 25 years for that offense. The Billings Gazzette reported that the same man admitted to raping a 13-year-old girl for which Baugh gave him another 10 years.

    The judge has issued an apology and offered to explain his comments a little further, but that seems like one mess you can’t back-peddle out of easily.

    So, what gives, Judge? Maybe it’s time you started shopping for that Lake house and buying a new set of clubs.