I will comment on this once my blood pressure returns to normal, which could/will take a while ~ ~ Sooz

Teacher Gets 30 Days For Raping 14-Year-Old Girl, Judge Says Victim Was Older Than Her Years
Associated Press- August 28, 2013, 12:39 PM

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Faced with growing backlash, a Billings, Mont., judge who sentenced a man to 30 days for raping a 14-year-old girl is standing by his decision and comments that the girl was older than her “chronological age” when it came to sexual matters.

District Judge G. Todd Baugh handed down the sentence Monday after former Billings Senior High School teacher Stacey Rambold, 54, was terminated from a sexual offender treatment program that was part of a deal to have his prosecution deferred. The judge said he wasn’t convinced that the reasons for Rambold’s termination from the program were serious enough to warrant a 10-year prison term recommended by prosecutors.

In handing down the sentence, Baugh also said Cherice Moralez was “older than her chronological age” and “as much in control of the situation” as the teacher.

Moralez killed herself in 2010 at age 16 while the case was pending.

A petition for the judge’s censure is being drafted and a protest was scheduled for Thursday at Veterans Memorial Park, which adjoins Yellowstone County Courthouse in downtown Billings.

The girl’s mother, Auleia Hanlon, left the sentencing hearing screaming, “You people suck!” She said in a statement Tuesday she no longer believes in justice after Baugh’s remarks and sentence, the Billings Gazette reported.

“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,” Hanlon said. “I guess somehow it makes a rape more acceptable if you blame the victim, even if she was only 14.”

Under state law, children younger than 16 cannot consent to sexual intercourse.

Baugh told the newspaper Tuesday that he 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.”

Moralez’s death complicated the case, Baugh said. The prosecution and defense reached an agreement after her death that Rambold would enter sexual-offender treatment.

If the former teacher completed treatment and complied with other conditions, the case would have been closed.

Rambold was terminated from the program in November when it was learned that he had been having unsupervised visits with minors, who were family members, and did not inform counselors that he had been having sexual relations with a woman.

“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.”

Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/teacher-30-days-rape-14-year-old-girl.php?ref=fpb

OK, so the judge has apologized and "After serving 30 days in jail, Rambold will be on probation and supervised by state authorities for 15 years".

That still is a light sentence for having raped a child. Not even one year in prison? What the hell?




Judge apologizes for remarks about teen rape victim

3 hours ago • By Greg Tuttle

Judge's remarks about teenage rape victim spark outrage

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… Read more
Former Senior High teacher gets 30 days for rape of student

A Yellowstone County district judge Monday ordered a former Senior High teacher convicted of raping a 14-year-old female student who later com… Read more

District Judge G. Todd Baugh issued an apology Wednesday morning for remarks he made about a 14-year-old rape victim.

"I don't know what I was thinking or trying to say," Baugh told The Billings Gazette. "It was just stupid and wrong."

The apology comes two days after a sentencing hearing for former Billings Senior High teacher Stacey Rambold, who admitted to raping 14-year-old student Cherice Moralez. The girl later committed suicide.

At the hearing on Monday, Baugh ordered Rambold to serve 15 years in prison, with all but 30 days suspended, for a single count of sexual intercourse without consent.

While explaining the sentence, Baugh said he had reviewed statements Moralez made to investigators before her death and determined that while she was a troubled youth, she also was "as much in control of the situation" as the teacher.

Baugh also said Moralez was "older than her chronological age."

Moralez's mother, Auliea Hanlon, was angered by the sentence and stormed out the courtroom, shouting "You people suck!" She testified at the hearing that the rapes of her daughter were a major reason for her suicide, and she asked the judge to order Rambold to prison.

Hanlon issued a statement Tuesday saying she "looked on in disbelief" at the hearing.

"I guess somehow it makes a rape more acceptable if you blame the victim, even if she was only 14," Hanlon said in the statement.

The judge's statements were picked up by numerous national and international news organizations and sparked outrage among many people, including the Montana chapter of the National Organization for Women.

A petition seeking Baugh's resignation is being circulated, and a protest has been planned for Thursday.

Baugh said Wednesday morning he regrets the statements he made during the court hearing. He also submitted a letter to the editor for publication in The Gazette, stating he is "not sure just what I was attempting to say, but it did not come out correct."

"What I said is demeaning of all women, not what I believe and irrelevant to the sentencing," Baugh said in the letter. "My apologies to all my fellow citizens."

Baugh said he plans to write an addendum to the court file this week explaining his reasons for the sentence he imposed more thoroughly.

Baugh told a reporter he believes the 30-day jail sentence was appropriate given the nature of the case. He likened the hearing Monday to a probation violation in which a defendant is re-sentenced for violating terms of a suspended sentence.

As he did Monday in court, Baugh said Wednesday he believes the violations of the deferred prosecution agreement between Rambold and state prosecutors were not serious enough to warrant a lengthy prison term.

After serving 30 days in jail, Rambold will be on probation and supervised by state authorities for 15 years, and he will be required to register as a sexual offender.

Baugh said the outrage that followed reports of his statements during the hearing on Monday were "perfectly understandable."

In 2008, Rambold was charged with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent for an ongoing sexual relationship with Moralez, a Senior High student.

Rambold had previously been placed on paid leave from his job as a business and technology teacher after school officials learned of the allegations. He later resigned and surrendered his teaching certificate.

While the criminal case was pending, Moralez committed suicide, which became a complication for the prosecution of Rambold.

As a result, Rambold and the Yellowstone County Attorney's Office entered into a deferred prosecution agreement.

The agreement stated that prosecutors would hold the charges in abeyance on condition that Rambold complete a sex offender treatment program and abide by other conditions, including having no unsupervised contact with minors.

In addition, Rambold provided a written statement admitting to a single rape charge.

In December, prosecutors refiled the three felony charges against Rambold after learning he had been terminated from the sex offender treatment program.

The case then resulted in a plea agreement in which Rambold pleaded guilty to one rape charge and prosecutors dismissed the two remaining charges.

Rambold was sentenced Monday on the single rape charge.

At the hearing, prosecutors recommended Rambold receive a sentence of 20 years in prison, with 10 years suspended.

Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/c ... z2dIXQpO3U

I'm appalled. With attitudes like this, I'm surprised everyone isn't terrified to send their kids to school.

This man deserves to be fired, charged, and thrown in prison, even if the girl did consent. Even if she stripped and jumped him in his classroom. He was a TEACHER. He was in a position of trust, and he broke it. The state says send your kids to school, we have the best trained caregivers here to give them what they need, paid to put their interests first. Then, when someone breaches their professional ethics, and the LAW, the state says through the mouth of this judge, she was "asking" for it?

we need to reinstall trust in our public institutions. In order to do that, we have to come down HARD on teachers who breach the trust of vulnerable children and their parents. This judge is an ass.

"Rape" is such a harsh word. The teacher had consensual sex with a 14-year-old minor (which is illegal, but not true rape). She was not raped. "Rape" is when someone forcibly has sex with someone against their will.

While 30 days is too lenient, I think 30 years for having consensual sex with someone is too harsh.

I think our laws need to be re-examined anyway. According to Jewish law, a person becomes a full adult on their 13th birthday.

Inherently, our society seems to feel that 16 years of age should be the legal age to be able to have sex with someone. Just look at all the songs that speak of "She was only 16" and "Sweet 16" and so forth. There are countless songs that talk about finding someone attractive at the age of 16, and they are played on the radio all the time. No one ever balks and cries out that those songs are about child abuse or raping someone.

I think our laws need to be re-examined anyway. According to Jewish law, a person becomes a full adult on their 13th birthday.

So what?

Inherently, our society seems to feel that 16 years of age should be the legal age to be able to have sex with someone. Just look at all the songs that speak of "She was only 16" and "Sweet 16" and so forth. There are countless songs that talk about finding someone attractive at the age of 16, and they are played on the radio all the time. No one ever balks and cries out that those songs are about child abuse or raping someone.

So now pop songs = rape/paedophilia? So I reckon those paedophile priests are good to go, eh?

"Rape" is such a harsh word. The teacher had consensual sex with a 14-year-old minor (which is illegal, but not true rape). She was not raped. "Rape" is when someone forcibly has sex with someone against their will.

Wrong, SciFi. Very wrong.

The reason we use the term "minor" is because we consider those below a certain age unable to truly understand the details of their actions. A 7-year-old could consent to sex by your reasoning.

Lack of consent is a necessary element in every rape. But this qualifier does not mean that a person may make sexual contact with a minor or incapacitated person who actually consented. Lack of consent may result from either forcible compulsion by the perpetrator or an incapacity to consent on the part of the victim. Persons who are physically or mentally helpless or who are under a certain age in relation to the perpetrator are deemed legally incapable of consenting to sex.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/rape

It's interesting comparing the responses on this thread to those on the thread about the Florida girls.

Good point, jim ~ but I see a BIG difference between the two cases ~ first I want to make clear that I believe teens experimenting is nothing new and is age-appropriate ~

The Florida girls were both minors when their relationship started ~ and I think parents on both sides played a major, and troubling, role ~ while I was sympathetic to Kaitlyn in the beginning [mostly because I saw the "victim's" parents as delaying a complaint until she reached majority age], the update I posted yesterday which exposes her defiance of the court order is a fairly typical teen "I'll show them" mindset and is dumb in the extreme ~

But as greeny says above, this man "... was a TEACHER. He was in a position of trust, and he broke it." ~ that says it all for me ~

Sooz

The Florida girls are two girls three years apart in age. One does not have any kind of societal authority or responsibility for the other. They began the relationship when both were minors.

A 14 year old girl cannot consent to a sexual relationship with a teacher, parent, caregiver, authority figure. She does not have the capacity to understand the implications of the relationship. She may not understand the implications of saying no. Even a mature teen cannot see this. Brain development, brain chemistry, the hyperactive state of the amygdala interfere with the capacity to understand the implications of actions as an adult would. That is why there are some kinds of laws about sex with children in your care in every state. The teen's suicide illustrates her inability to be able to foresee the consequences of the actions.

The major difference between the two cases is that the teacher is a caregiver, an authority figure.

Rape accurately describes taking advantage of a person who cannot consent. Violence is not a necessary element in rape; it is an aggravating element.

A 14 year old girl cannot consent to a sexual relationship with a teacher, parent, caregiver, authority figure.

If she's not capable of consenting to a older guy, how can she be capable of consenting to a younger girl? Isn't it a case of her personal maturity.

No it is a case of a complex and dual relationship with a CAREGIVER, or someone who has real or perceived societal power over her, not a peer or near peer.

In the case of kids in high school the idea is that being that age they are equals as far as maturity (or immaturity) and responsibility, etc. With this man there is no doubt he is more mature and is more responsible for his actions. He is the one who should have been making the responsible choice. As a teacher, he was responsible for helping her make the choices in her best interest. Teachers are there to help kids as they go through this tricky period in ther lives where brain, emotions, hormones etc cause such chaos. Instead, he took advantage and served only himself.

I think there are lessons to be learned here. It's too late for Cherice's family to learn them, but maybe for other families in this position. A 47 year old man cannot legally have sex with a 14 year old girl. Not ever. It's worse when it is a teacher or minister or anyone in a position of trust.

One of the big problems was the intense bullying she received at school after the charges where levied. I don't think she had enough counseling or social support. It had to be very hard for her.

The teen had, Mrs Hanlon explained, been reluctant to press charges for fear of the social stigma in the community and at Billings Senior High School.

Her anxieties were tragically realised. She said: 'When you're a teenager your whole life revolves around friends, buddies and social ties.

'But after this happened she had none of those really. It was all dark looks, people would step out of the way, shun her.

'He ruined her life in school. And she went back and she went back and she went back until it was just too much.

The protracted and confusing legal process did not help.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... mbold.html

Washington Post Actually Runs Piece Arguing Teachers Shouldn’t Be Jailed For Sex With Underage Students

By Ian Millhiser on August 31, 2013 at 12:05 pm

After Montana Judge Todd Baugh sentenced a 49 year-old school teacher to just 30 days in prison for the statutory rape of a 14 year-old student — a student who subsequently committed suicide — most people who learned of the story reacted in outrage. The editors of the Washington Post’s opinion page, by contrast, decided to respond to this incident by publishing a piece arguing that the teacher’s actions shouldn’t even be a crime — nor should nearly any of what the piece labels as “consensual sexual activity between teachers and students.”

A major thrust of the author’s argument (which we will not link to out of concern that the Washington Post chose to run this piece in a misguided effort to drive traffic to its webpage) is that the very existence of sex between teachers and students suggests that such sex should not be criminalized. According to the piece’s author:

I’ve been a 14-year-old girl, and so have all of my female friends. When it comes to having sex on the brain, teenage boys got nothin’ on us. When I was growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, the sexual boundaries between teachers and students were much fuzzier. Throughout high school, college and law school, I knew students who had sexual relations with teachers. To the best of my knowledge, these situations were all consensual in every honest meaning of the word, even if society would like to embrace the fantasy that a high school student can’t consent to sex. Although some feelings probably got bruised, no one I knew was horribly damaged and certainly no one died. . . .

The point is that there is a vast and extremely nuanced continuum of sexual interactions involving teachers and students, ranging from flirtation to mutual lust to harassment to predatory behavior. Painting all of these behaviors with the same brush sends a damaging message to students and sets the stage for hypocrisy and distortion of the truth. Many teenagers are, biologically speaking, sexually mature. Pretending that this kind of thing won’t happen if we simply punish it severely enough is delusional.

It is certainly true that statutory rape laws have not eliminated sex between teachers and underage students. It is also true that murder laws have not eliminated homicide. That is not an argument for decriminalizing murder.

Moreover, the piece ignores one of the primary reasons why sex between an adult teacher and an underage student is a crime — the tremendous power gulf between the two parties. Even beyond the gulf that often exists in statutory rape cases, teachers wield tremendous authority over students. They have the power to discipline students, to detain students (that’s where the word “detention” comes from), and often to suspend students based on their mere word given to a school official. In the district where I taught, I briefly had the power to literally beat a student with a wooden paddle (a power I never used). The policy was changed to require my school’s dean of students to administer corporal punishment, but he was naturally inclined to side with teachers who asked him to paddle a student. And, of course, all of this ignores the power teachers have over the students in their classrooms to set their grades — a power that can potentially shape the remainder of the student’s future.

Asking public servants entrusted with these awesome powers to not use their charges as a vehicle for their own orgasms is hardly an unreasonable request. Nor should a person who violates this trust be treated as anything other than a serious criminal. Teachers can limit their sex partners to the vast universe of people in the world that they do not wield authority over, and the law generally presumes that they have taken advantage of their power when they choose to do otherwise.

The Washington Post opinion page’s decision to publish this piece is the latest in a series of questionable editorial decisions by that paper. Most recently, the paper published two pieces by its regular columnists arguing that George Zimmerman “understandably suspected” Trayvon Martin of being a criminal “because he was black” and that racial profiling is “common sense.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/31/2560171/washington-post-actually-publishes-piece-arguing-teachers-jailed-sex-underage-students/

Does Murdoch or the Koch Brothers own the WP now?

I saved that article to read later and then got distracted ~ so thanks, John ~ must be true that "GMTA" ~

I have found Ian Millhiser to be a smart, perceptive, common-sense guy ~ and he nails it here ~ his take on the "power" and the morality issues mirror some of our other comments ~ and I agree that something is going on at WaPo beyond its recent sale to Jeff Bezos [which I don't think has closed yet] ~

Assuming we are talking about teens here, I know more kids are sexually active at younger ages today than in my day ~ but there is an ENORMOUS difference between kids experimenting with each other and kids being attracted to "older" men/women ~ and there's an even more ENORMOUS difference when the attraction [or the temptation/coercion] is with someone who has some measure of power or control over the teen ~

Sooz

LOL, Jab ~ no ... but good guess!

Sooz

You're welcome, Sooz.

I think I find this story especially troublesome because the girl killed herself.

One thing I don't understand about the 30 day sentence; Either this is a case of rape of a 14-year-old or it isn't. Either sex with a 14-year-old is illegal or it isn't. Is the judge implying that it depends on the 14-year-old?!!

I too am disturbed that the girl committed suicide while the case was pending...and wonder what was said during the proceedings that might have contributed to her final act of desperation...

There is a law (at least in Missouri) that if a death results as the result of the comission of a felony that the charge is heightened to the charge of murder... while I realize it might be reaching, I wonder if the psychic injury resulting from this child abuse (rape) might not be shown as an immediate causative factor in her suicide...and the man might (ought) to be charged with murder in at least 3rd or 2nd degree...

I also wonder if Judge Baugh might not be in need of evaluation for beginning stages of dementia....

One would hope a judge would at least skim sentencing guidelines before ... sentencing ~ ~ Sooz

Judge Who Sentenced 14-Year-Old’s Rapist To 30 Days In Prison Decides This Sentence Was Illegal
By Rebecca Leber on September 4, 2013 at 11:56 am

Montana District Judge G. Todd Baugh quickly gained notoriety last week for reducing a convicted rapist’s 15-year prison sentence to just 30 days of jail time. Now, Baugh has called a new hearing Friday because he realized the sentence was so short it would have violated two-year mandatory minimum sentencing required by state law.

“In the Court’s opinion, imposing a sentence which suspends more than the mandatory minimum would be an illegal sentence,” Baugh wrote.

Montana teacher Stacey Rambold, 54, had already been found guilty of raping a 14-year-old student, and faced prison after failing his therapy course. But it was the judge’s controversial remarks on consent that drew hundreds of protesters outside of the courthouse and 30,000 signatures calling him to resign. When he delivered the short sentence, Baugh said the victim had acted “older than her chronological age” and “as much in control” of the situation as the teacher.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/09/04/2569171/montana-judge-rapist-sentence/

The ruling was indeed "... just stupid and wrong" ~ ~ Sooz

State Supreme Court stops Montana judge from annulling highly-criticized 31-day rape ruling for teacher
By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, September 7, 2013 8:20 EDT

A US judge was blocked on Friday from increasing the controversial one-month jail term he imposed on a teacher convicted of raping a 14-year-old student.

Montana’s Supreme Court said judge G. Todd Baugh could not annul the 31-day sentence he imposed on teacher Stacey Rambold for raping schoolgirl Cherice Moralez, who later committed suicide.

But the top tribunal did not rule on the sentence itself, which is expected to be appealed in a higher court, and changed to at least two years behind bars.

Baugh, who apologized after his ruling last month sparked protests nationwide, had planned a District Court hearing for Friday afternoon to void his sentence, with a view to imposing a longer prison term.

In a court order this week, the 71-year-old said his sentence was “illegal” because it ignored the compulsory minimum sentence of two years in jail.

But barely an hour before the scheduled hearing, the Montana Supreme Court ruled: “The stated intent .. to alter the initially imposed oral sentence in today’s scheduled hearing is unlawful … the proceeding should be arrested.

“We take no position on the legality of the imposed sentence, and will address the parties’ arguments in that regard on appeal,” added a six-member panel of judges, who agreed on their ruling by four to two.

Baugh had sentenced Rambold to 15 years in prison for sexual intercourse without consent, after the teacher admitted raping Moralez. But he suspended all but 31 days of the sentence.

Critics slammed both the lenience of the sentence and the judge’s comments in court that Moralez was “older than her chronological age” and “as much in control of the situation” as the now 54-year-old teacher.

“I don’t know what I was thinking or trying to say,” Baugh told the Billings Gazette,” apologizing for the ruling, adding: “It was just stupid and wrong.”

Moralez killed herself at the age of 17. Her mother said she believed the rape contributed to her decision to commit suicide.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/07/state-supreme-court-stops-montana-judge-from-annulling-highly-criticized-31-day-rape-ruling-for-teacher/

It is time for Baugh to retire....