Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Judge's remarks about teenage rape victim spark outrage
Billings Gazette ^ | 8-28-2013 | Tom Lutey

Posted on 08/27/2013 11:58:51 PM PDT by servo1969

A judge’s conclusion that a 14-year-old Billings rape victim was “as much in control of the situation” as her schoolteacher rapist has sparked outrage across the nation.

Organizers have scheduled a Thursday rally and a petition drive against District Judge G. Todd Baugh, who Monday handed down a net sentence of 30 days in jail to former Senior High teacher Stacey Rambold, 54, who raped 14-year-old Cherice Moralez.

The sentence came after Rambold, 54, failed to meet sex offender treatment requirements and other conditions that would have ended the now six-year-old case.

Moralez killed herself weeks before her 17th birthday as her sexual relationship with Rambold became a criminal case.

Under state law, children younger than 16 cannot consent to sexual intercourse, which makes Rambold’s crime felony rape.

However, when issuing the sentence Baugh said Moralez not only had equal control of the rape, but was also a troubled youth “older than her chronological age.” The remark sparked outrage, first from Moralez’ mother, Auliea Hanlon, and then from people calling for the judge to at least be censured.

Hanlon left the court screaming “You people suck.” The mother blames Rambold for Moralez’ suicide and told the court the former teacher belonged in prison.

Tuesday, Hanlon said in a written statement that she no longer believes in justice after Baugh’s remarks and sentence order.

“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. “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.”

Public objection to Baugh’s remarks has prompted a protest planned for 12:15 p.m. Thursday at Veterans Memorial Park, which adjoins Yellowstone County Courthouse in downtown Billings. The story was recirculated on the Internet and drew comments on the websites of several national news publications.

“Something is not right with our system when a judge can make that kind of decision,” said Marian Bradley of the Montana National Organization for Women. “Unless we show our outrage, none of our children are safe and no one will think of us. I think the judge needs to be reviewed and he needs to be sanctioned.”

Bradley, who has worked with the victims of sexual assault, will circulate a petition calling for the state to investigate Baugh’s sentence, which county prosecutors Tuesday told the Associated Press was within statutory guidelines.

Protest organizer Sheena Rice said the suggestion that any 14-year-old child was on equal footing with a rapist in his 40s, let alone a person of authority, like a schoolteacher, was outrageous.

“What angered me is that the judge said the victim was older than her chronological age,” Rice said. “I don’t care if she wore makeup. I don’t care if she dressed provocatively. She was a 14-year-old and he was in a position of power.”

As a victim of rape, Rice said she thinks it’s strange that the justice system would have mandatory sentences for drug crimes, but that a rape conviction could involve a month in jail.

On Tuesday, Baugh stood by his comments that Moralez was a troubled youth who was older than her age when it came to sexual matters. That didn’t make Rambold’s sex with Moralez 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 said. “It was horrible enough as it is just given her age, but it wasn’t this forcible beat-up rape.”

Baugh said Moralez’s death complicated the county attorney’s ability to prosecute Rambold. After Moralez’s suicide, the prosecution and defense reached an agreement that Rambold would enter sexual-offender treatment. If the former teacher completed treatment and complied with other conditions, the case would have been closed.

But Rambold broke terms of the agreement by associating with teens who were his relatives and by becoming sexually involved with an adult, but not notifying authorities.

“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.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Montana
KEYWORDS: judge; rape; suicide; teacher
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last
Cherice Moralez [victim]

Stacey Dean Rambold [rapist]

Judge G. Todd Baugh [idiot, fool, jerk, pr!ck, coot, moron, twit, dipstick, d!ckhead, schmuck, dork, dolt, halfwit, putz, dumb-ass, gobshite, dotard, f*ckwit, numbskull]

1 posted on 08/27/2013 11:58:51 PM PDT by servo1969
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: servo1969
I don’t care if she wore makeup. I don’t care if she dressed provocatively. She was a 14-year-old and he was in a position of power.”

Provocatively?

It takes a bit of shopping around to keep your teenager looking demure. The clothes just aren't on the rack. Even the 'child stars' on TV are often dressed like tramps.

Bottom line is that the teacher is an adult, and should be old (mature) enough to refrain from abusing his position. Just say "no" and all that...

2 posted on 08/28/2013 12:52:30 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: servo1969

I figure the judge was hoping the teacher would give him a few leads....(yuck!)


3 posted on 08/28/2013 1:12:42 AM PDT by donmeaker (Blunderbuss: A short weapon, ... now superceded in civilized countries by more advanced weaponry.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: servo1969
“Something is not right with our system when a judge can make that kind of decision,” said Marian Bradley of the Montana National Organization for Women.

I disagree. It is not the judicial system that is broken it is this judge and our educational system that is broken.

This judge has been so poorly educated in the basis of law, the application of law and the moral foundations of law that it made possible such a travesty of justice to be handed down from his bench.

I believe we can expect more of the same from our judges in the future. But it is not the system of justice that is broken. Our founders built on a foundation of British common law the best system of justice in the world. But Liberal Socialist have infiltrated the Law colleges of this country and are systematically destroying our law by subverting our up and coming lawyers.

Judges have from the beginning of judicial courts been given latitude over sentencing so that miscarriages of justice could be prevented. For example as when the father of a teenage girl kills his daughter’s rapist in a fit of uncontrollable rage he might that father might be given a suspended sentence.

But this judge abuses that power in essentially freeing the rapist while stating with out evidence that the child was as much in control of the relation ship as a man more than 3 times her age.

This judge is not worthy to be on the bench of a traffic court.

4 posted on 08/28/2013 1:47:08 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: donmeaker

Your words are probably truer than you think. We live in a sick society where the whole LGBT crowd is just a step a way from pedophilia being accepted as “normal”. You have to wonder how low society can go and I don’t think we’re anywhere near bottom.


5 posted on 08/28/2013 2:14:23 AM PDT by maddog55 (America Rising.... Civil War II)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: servo1969

Methinks Judge Baugh has some skeletons in his own closet.

His remarks are legally without foundation or defense, and he needs to be removed from the bench.

His remarks reek of a dangerous untreated pathology


6 posted on 08/28/2013 2:32:48 AM PDT by exit82 ("The Taliban is on the inside of the building" E. Nordstrom 10-10-12)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: exit82; All
FYI..Bill O'Reilly did a segment on the yesterday. I think the judge is not long for the bench.

BTW,he's the grandson of NFL Hall of Fame QB Slingin' Sammy Baugh..

7 posted on 08/28/2013 3:45:30 AM PDT by ken5050 (2014 Tea Party Trifecta! Retire Mitch, Lamar, and Lindsey)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe
Heck, just look at the Miley Cyrus MTV performance and it's abundantly clear the line of appropriate decorum has not been blurred, it's been erased. She comes out of a teddy bear, dressed to look like a tween in a fuzzy leotard, strips to a latex bra and pantry and proceeds to grind like a porn star on a man dressed like a referee (authority figure).

Is it any wonder these adult/child encounters are becoming more commonplace? It's by design!

8 posted on 08/28/2013 3:59:02 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (The only difference between flash mob 'urban yutes' and U.S. politicians is the hoodies.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: liberalh8ter
It's by design!

Yes, the communists set a goal to promote loose sexual more in the '60s have worked on it through today (they or their students).

9 posted on 08/28/2013 4:08:09 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe
And now a judicial authority has taken the complete onus from the adult and transferred it to the minor. It's tantamount to legitimizing the idea that the minor's decision to ‘participate’ negates the adult's responsibility to recognize that children are hands off.
10 posted on 08/28/2013 4:15:22 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (The only difference between flash mob 'urban yutes' and U.S. politicians is the hoodies.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: servo1969

100 years ago both the rapist and this judge would have been hung with the same rope to save money.


11 posted on 08/28/2013 4:24:35 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac

I despise this judge’s sentence for the adult rapist.

I see the problem being that some States only allow juries to decide on guilt, letting the judges then set the sentences. In most of those States, the judges are liberal.

I prefer the system in Texas where, after deciding guilt, the JURY determines the punishment; not some dumb-ass judge. The jury here knows the facts and is given the range of possible sentences, within the law, and usually does the right thing in setting the punishment.

Judges should only sit at court to ensure that procedures of law are followed during the trials.


12 posted on 08/28/2013 5:34:12 AM PDT by octex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: liberalh8ter
These are the sort of creatures who look at children as "little adults". They aren't. They are children. They don't think like adults, and their emotional needs are not the same. That the child in this instance took her own life is the kicker--and a measure of how messed up this kid was, whether over this incident or something else.

Instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to mentor and help out a kid, the SOB just took advantage.

Any adult who touched my kid (grand, great-grand, niece or nephew) had better pray for a long jail term.

13 posted on 08/28/2013 6:02:27 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe

Those funny “educators” are at it again.


14 posted on 08/28/2013 6:53:43 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: octex
I prefer the system in Texas where, after deciding guilt, the JURY determines the punishment; not some dumb-ass judge. The jury here knows the facts and is given the range of possible sentences, within the law, and usuallydoes the right thing in setting the punishment.

I was on a jury in Texas that sentenced a 21 year old mother to 11 years to prevent a judge from probating the sentence just because it was a first offense. If a man had committed the same aggravating actions, we probably would have sentenced him to 20 or more years.

15 posted on 08/28/2013 8:11:17 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: liberalh8ter
I deliberately will not watch those shows but you can pick up enough info on her sinful and obscene exhibition just looking at the regular news....

our culture is a toilet and our children and young people reflect if perfectly....

this rapist and this judge should be sitting side by side in the federal prison IMO....I hope the mother sues the pants literally and figuratively off this rapist.....pathetic loser that he is...

16 posted on 08/28/2013 10:06:39 AM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: maddog55

You perhaps remember the story about the boy who goes to confession in the long ago days, and confesses to fornication.

The priest tells him that he has to tell who the other person was to make a complete confession. The boy refuses.

“Was it Mary Mahoney?”

“No Father.”

“Was it Susan Siren?”

“No Father.”

“Was it Ester Hanrahan?”

“No Father, I won’t give you her name.”

“Then your Penance will be more severe. You have to pray 10 Our Fathers, and 100 Hail Marys. Think on the corruption you bring to your immortal soul, and go and sin no more. Te absolvo.”

As he leaves, another boy waiting in line asked him “What did you get?”

“10 Our Fathers, 100 Hail Marys, and three good leads.”


17 posted on 08/28/2013 6:17:28 PM PDT by donmeaker (Blunderbuss: A short weapon, ... now superceded in civilized countries by more advanced weaponry.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Paleo Conservative

The Jury only knows the facts that are permitted into evidence.

In many cases, past offenses are not permitted to be referenced. Evidence that had an error in the chain of custody is suppressed. The prosecutor and defender take turns kicking people off the jury, so the people who look the kindest or smartest are gone.

Jury trial is indeed better than the French system where judges both run the court, and decide, with noone on the side of the defendant.


18 posted on 08/28/2013 6:22:59 PM PDT by donmeaker (Blunderbuss: A short weapon, ... now superceded in civilized countries by more advanced weaponry.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: donmeaker
The Jury only knows the facts that are permitted into evidence.

In many cases, past offenses are not permitted to be referenced. Evidence that had an error in the chain of custody is suppressed. The prosecutor and defender take turns kicking people off the jury, so the people who look the kindest or smartest are gone.

In Texas, that information would be excluded from the guilt phase of the trial but not the penalty phase.

In the case of the jury for which I was picked, they almost ran out of people on the jury pool. Due to the circumstances of the case, we had to be willing to consider any punishment from probation to 99 years. There were about 20 people who were dismissed due to being unable to consider such a wide range of punishments. It's interesting that both I and another person who were able to serve for the week but not beyond, got picked. The guy who ended up being the jury foreman couldn't be there if the trial had to go on for a second week due to work out of town. I didn't want to have to spend the weekend deliberating, because I was going out of town to see my college roommate who was in the US for a few days before heading back to Europe where he works.

19 posted on 08/29/2013 5:40:11 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe

And yet we have some FReepers on other threads about this case that are trying to justify what the teacher did by saying that this 14 year old consented. My eyes have been opened as to just how pervasive the decay is when FReepers are justifying this behavior. Disgusting!


20 posted on 08/29/2013 8:51:24 PM PDT by 2nd amendment mama ( www.2asisters.org | Self defense is a basic human right!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson