I am barely able to restrain myself from writing a blasphemy, just out of complete drop-the-jaw exasperation.
If you don’t know this story: In Montana, a teacher raped a 14 year old girl. She then committed suicide two years later. Her family says the rape was a major factor in the suicide.
The rape, the judge is claiming, was “consensual,” even though it wasn’t (legally it can’t be; a 14 year old girl can’t consent to sex with a middle-aged man).
The teacher — teacher — was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. But then the judge suspended all but 31 days of the sentence.
Obviously, a 14-year-old can’t consent. I think that people have in mind that this was some violent, forcible, horrible rape,” Baugh told the Billings Gazette. “It was horrible enough as it is just given her age, but it wasn’t this forcible beat-up rape.”
Just a “light rape” then.
He had other kind words for the now-dead victim, by the way. Here he pretty much calls her a whore.
In handing down the sentence Monday, Baugh said the teenage victim was “older than her chronological age” and had as much control of the situation as the teacher who raped her.
Horrified citizens are collecting signatures for a petition demanding he resign, but of course he won’t; they never do. Politicians serve for life, like Kings. But there is a plan B:
f the petition and protest aren’t enough to force Baugh’s resignation, protesters will shift to defeating him in the 2014 election, Rice said.
This is our country. If we don’t take it back, it’s our fault, not some addled 71-year-old Hippie Judge’s fault.