Judge Edward Cashman
Posted on 01/14/2006 6:19:28 AM PST by NYer
Judge Edward Cashman
Vermont's governor says more than 20,000 e-mails, phone calls and letters have poured into his office in response to a state judge's 60-day sentence for a child rapist who admitted abusing a young girl over a period of four years.
The "overwhelming majority" condemn District Court Judge Edward Cashman's light sentence for 34-year-old Mark Hulett, said Jason Gibbs, spokesman for Gov. Jim Douglas, in an interview with WorldNetDaily.
"The outrage that the vast majority of Vermonters have here is shared by fellow countrymen," said Gibbs, noting the many protests coming from across the nation.
The spokesman said the governor is "appalled" by the decision.
"He certainly is extremely disappointed and disgusted with the sentence itself," Gibbs said. "What is equally troubling is that the judge no longer believes in punishment. The governor says that if a criminal court judge no longer believes in punishment, he shouldn't be on the bench."
As WorldNetDaily reported Jan. 6, Cashman told a packed Burlington courtroom made up mostly of people related to the victim: "The one message I want to get through is that anger doesn't solve anything. It just corrodes your soul."
The judge said that when he began 25 years ago, he handed down tough sentences but now believes "it accomplishes nothing of value."
"It doesn't make anything better; it costs us a lot of money; we create a lot of expectation, and we feed on anger," Cashman explained.
The judge said he wanted to ensure Hulett got sex-offender treatment, but under Department of Corrections classification, the convict was considered a low-risk for re-offense, which meant he didn't qualify for in-prison treatment. Cashman decided then to issue the minimum 60-day sentence and ordered Hulett to complete the treatment when he got out or face a possible life sentence.
This week, however, Human Services Secretary Michael Smith announced an order to reclassify Hulett, making him eligible for in-prison treatment.
Gibbs said this paves the way for Cashman to issue a new sentence. Prosecutors filed a motion based on the new order yesterday and await the judge's response.
The governor's spokesman said the issue of rehabilitation should not have been a hindrance to Cashman in the first place.
"He could have picked up the phone and called the governor and made that point," Gibbs said. "Treatment or lack of treatment is not an excuse not to punish someone for a heinous crime."
Gibbs said it's unlikely Cashman can be impeached, because the state's statute has a "very high standard."
A judge cannot be removed for a poor decision, he explained, but only for an egregious breach of the law or ethics.
The state's House of Representatives is considering a non-binding resolution urging Cashman to resign.
Gibbs said the speaker of the House has ordered the resolution to committee, but it's unclear whether it will come to the floor for a vote.
However, Cashman could be removed in one year when he faces his next retention hearings.
Vermont's judges are appointed by the governor and must face retention hearings every six years in which their performance is evaluated.
"So if he chooses not to resign now, he will have to face this issue again," Gibbs said.
The state's House Judiciary Committee took testimony this week on Hulett's sentence and planned also to hear from Corrections Department officials. In addition, the panel is considering legislation to require tougher sentences.
Republican state Sen. Wendy Wilton plans to introduce a bill based on "Jessica's law," a nationwide initiative for states that includes barring registered sex offenders from living near schools and parks and requiring them to wear satellite tracking devices.
The cornerstone of the measure, Wilton said, is a 25-year minimum mandatory sentence for aggravated sexual assault.
Cashman said in a statement "the negative comments sting."
"I am aware that the intensity of some public criticism may shorten my judicial career," he said. "To change my decision now, however, simply because of some negative sentiment, would be wrong.
"I owe it to the judiciary and to my own conscience to maintain a stand that I believe is the best possible option in a very difficult situation," he said.
It has a big impact. It seems that most governors have national election desires, or they want good natonal PR for their states.
That would be a good question to put to those 'touchy feely' types on TV.
It's a 'touchy feely' perspective question they could understand.
It's Vermont that allows gay marriage and their judges reflect that left-leaning sentiment. The people may speak by NOT voting him in on the next election day, but the governor must intervene now and use all legal means at his disposal to kick Cashman off the bench ASAP.
And Cashman will have blood on his hands.
Cashman is the type of judge that a President Kerry would have nominated to replace William Rehnquist, if he had won in 2004.
Elections do matter.
You may want to rethink that comment. We are all part of the United States, what happens in one State can and will effect other States. It's just a matter of time before this loser serves his meager 60 days and then decides to come to your State, do you have children, better hide them and then call the Gov of Vermont and support the decision to remove the clown judge.
the next DIMRAT Supreme Court nominee...lol
Howard Dean, Patrick Leahy, Jim Jeffords, and Bernie Sanders should have caused that a LONG time ago.
Why is it that almost every White male moonbat over the age of 35 seems to have the same male-pattern-baldness, lozenge--lensed eyeglasses, dippy little beard, and look of perpetual indignance on his face?
This judge looked way too much like the guy out in California that raped and murdered that little girl and got the death sentence. I forget his name but this guy looks just like him (in MHO). Also, what is this guy pro-child molester?
From what I heard on Fox about an hour ago. Another guy who is a friend of the rapist also raped this child. He is presently on bail.
Same judge?
From what I heard it sounded like it, but I could not swear to it.
He could face up to life in prison if convicted. Kimball's case is not being handled by Cashman but by Judge Michael Kupersmith.
Seems like the state of Vermont has crisis in their judiciary.
No one is asking this idiot judge to change his opinion because of "some negative sentiment". We want him to change his opinion because his opinion WAS WRONG!! Good grief, this judge is sick!
Jeffrey Amostoy, former Chief Justice of Vermont, Howard deans "pocket rocket" who referred a question of equal treatment for same sex unions from the VT SC to the Vermont Legislature, , which resulted in Vermonts Civil Union Law, and a huge pile of campaign money from California Gays for Deans screaming run at the Dem nomination for president, (NO SURPRISE ), supports Judge Cashman:
www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2006/01/14/former_chief_justice_praises_judge_edward_cashman/
Former chief justice praises Judge Edward Cashman By Christopher Graff, Associated Press Writer | January 14, 2006
MONTPELIER, Vt. --Former Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy has praised Judge Edward Cashman as a "competent, caring and conservative trial judge."
Amestoy, who stepped down as chief justice in 2004, wrote in an opinion piece for Vermont newspapers that "of all the waters a judge must navigate, sentencing is by far the most challenging."
Amestoy is living in Germany while his wife, a teacher, is on sabbatical there. "From this distance it is difficult to assess the merits of Judge Cashman's decision in the Hulett case, but I doubt it would be any easier to evaluate the appropriateness of the sentence, even if I had my former vantage point.
"It is easy to determine whether a sentence is popular or unpopular, but considerably more difficult to discern whether it is `right' or `wrong,'" Amestoy wrote.
At issue is the sentence that Cashman gave Mark Hulett in a sexual abuse case. Critics say the sentence provides too little jail time to serve as adequate punishment. Cashman's emphasis was on providing treatment for Hulett so that he would not be a repeat offender.
Amestoy, a Republican who served as attorney general from 1985 to his appointment in 1997 as chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, said that he had pushed unsuccessfully as attorney general for the Legislature to enact sentencing guidelines.
"Sentencing guidelines that preserve the discretion of the court to depart from the guidelines in appropriate cases - and provide the judge with the opportunity to explain his or her reasons for departure from the guidelines - would provide sentencing fairness, preserve judicial discretion, and contribute to greater public understanding of a court's sentencing rationale," he wrote.
"In the instant case, for example, such a sentencing guideline approach would have enabled Judge Cashman to place his reasoned explanation for the sentence on the record at the time of sentencing, rather than in response to a motion for sentence reconsideration and the swirling public criticism."
Amestoy went on to say that while sentencing reforms are an important discussion, the issue at the heart of the Cashman controversy "is whether Vermonters value an independent judiciary.
"A judge who must first think of the popular response to his or her decision is not an independent judge," wrote Amestoy.
"Judicial independence is a value easily honored in the abstract but more difficult to applaud when one disagrees with a decision. But, of course, it is then that it most needs to be sustained."
HEY I just rfemebered the Canadian Solution: LOWER THE AGE OF CONSENT FROM 16 to 14! Then pedophiles just have to get the little girls to say " Yes!"
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