There are three words that have relevancy here. They are not, “He did it, because...” They are, “He was wrong.” (oops)
I agree.
And this guy got a free pass.
He paid a fine, paid her restitution, and now has a permanent criminal record that forever labels him as a child abuser. That seems fair to me.
It's pretty rare anyone with no priors would get a worse sentence for punching someone in the face and not doing any permanent damage.
We're going to have to agree to disagree here, and I'll admit this end of the equasion is open to a little more interpretation than the actual offense was. (at least IMO) I'm still going to make my case.
There are cetain crimes where you let the guy off with a lighter sentence since there were no influencing priors, and nobody was physically harmed. And in some instances, I wholely agree with that.
When it comes to direct physical crimes against other humans, assult, abusing children, rape, murder, I take a very dim view of giving the guy a mulligan.
You and I have no idea how being struck in this mannor will affect this girl for the rest of her life. She may shake it off. She may also be afraid of going out into public. She could even develop problems as an adult, becoming a recluse because of an inordinate fear this guy instilled in her. I look back on my youth, and some of my most lasting memories, were when I got in trouble for something, when I didn't mean to do anything wrong. For instance, "How do I avoid this negative behavior against me, if I was trying to play by the rules now? I guess I can't avoid extreme negative measures against me, if I go out in public."
While this does involve some speculation on my part, it's not a big stretch here.
This guy was a learned man. He had 41 years of life experience, from which to gleen a proper response to this situation. There was just no excuse for this. And letting the guy off with a fine, having to register, and a few community service hours, means that the negative impact on him will certainly last less time than the psychological impact on the girl will, even if she does recover quickly. And that recovery in and of itself is going to be relative. She may never fully recover comfort on the ski slopes.
That just addresses this guy and his outcome. What about all the other knuckle draggers our there that now understand that they don't have much to fear from the law if they clinch their fists and pummel a fourteen year old?
If he struck my 14 year old kid that way, and caused her lasting problems, I would be very tempted to meet out more punishment to the guy, seeing what he wound up with. If I had taken her to the slopes to have a nice family outing, and then she got assulted by an adult on the slopes, his behavior with her would have been very tame by what I would have done in response.
Don't the victim and the parents of this young girl have the expectation of this guy getting the book thrown at him for this sort of thing? In my book, hell yes.
I don't think you would have been very forgiving if this had been your child.
Take care...