![]() ![]() ![]() They are usually white, a fact that was particularly relevant in the wake of Ehlke’s verdict, as one black lawmaker pointed out that the judge had sentenced a 16-year-old black offender to 20 years in prison before sentencing Cook. When you hear enough of these stories, a pattern tends to emerge. (Persky was later recalled by outraged California voters.) Similarly, last year Judge Stephen Ehlke sentenced Alec Cook, a man accused of sexually assaulting, stalking, and choking multiple female students, to only three years in prison, citing his lack of criminal record during sentencing, Ehlke addressed one of his victims in court by saying “Please, continue to be kind - I’m sorry - and positive.” Similar arguments were made on behalf of Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who was sentenced to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman by a dumpster Aaron Persky, the judge who sentenced Turner, cited the fact that Turner would “not be a danger to others” and his concern that “a prison sentence would have a severe impact” on him when justifying his light sentence. But it is far from an isolated example of a judge prioritizing the welfare of the defendant over that of the victim in a sexual abuse case. Troiano’s ruling was concerning enough for an appeals court to issue a 14-page rebuke accusing him of harboring bias against the accused there is currently a petition on to impeach him, and the media coverage of his ruling has prompted some to threaten him and his family, according to a report from the New York Times. “He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college,” Troiano said, adding that prosecutors should have told the judge to tell the sexual assault victim - “the alleged victim here, and I call her the alleged victim here,” as he put it - to have considered the boy’s potential when deciding whether to press charges against him. The boy later sent the video to friends with the text, “When your first time having sex was rape.”Īlthough New Jersey law allows offenders as young as 15 to be charged as adults for serious crimes, Troiano declined to do so, issuing a nearly two-hour ruling citing the boy’s academic achievements and privileged background to support his decision not to charge the boy within the full extent of the law. The boy had filmed himself having sex with an intoxicated 16-year-old girl, who could not stand up straight and had slurred speech shortly after the video was taken, she vomited, and woke up the next morning with bruises all over her body. Last month, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, about an hour south of Glen Ridge, Judge James Troiano denied prosecutors’ motion to charge a 16-year-old boy accused of sexual assault as an adult. The overwhelming consensus among townspeople was that they had everything to lose by being publicly named sex offenders, and that they shouldn’t have to pay such a steep price for having engaged in such harmless hijinks they were, after all, “our guys,” as they were called by the adoring female high school students who were known to arrive on their doorsteps with home-cooked meals for them. In an archival photo of the Glen Ridge football players leaving the courthouse, they look like exactly what they are: privileged, white, upper-middle-class boys. As journalist Bernard Lefkowitz documented in his book Our Guys, many residents of the predominantly white, upper middle-class town immediately rallied around the boys, with many parents blaming the teenage girl for seducing the boys and cheerleaders donning yellow ribbons at graduation to support the accused. But many in the town did not even think they should have been charged with a crime, let alone prosecuted. In 1993, three of the men were sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in a prison for “young offenders” for their role in the gang rape. The incident was only reported to the police when a teacher overheard one of the boys bragging to another student that they were planning to coax a repeat performance out of the girl, which they planned to videotape. The boys then told the girl not to tell anyone, then told her to leave. One of them said they should stop, a suggestion that was ignored. The boys took turns orally and vaginally penetrating her, and then penetrated her with a broom and a baseball bat, both of which were covered in baggies coated with Vaseline. The girl had an intellectual disability, and was later reported to have an IQ of about 64. In 1989, members of the Glen Ridge, New Jersey football team raped a 17-year-old girl in the basement of one of the boys’ houses.
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