War on women or social justice? Will her sentence spark the same national outrage and protest as the judge from Montana?
Via Daily Mail
A Texas judge has sparked national outrage after implying a 14-year-old rape victim was promiscuous and was not ‘the victim she claimed to be’.
State District Judge Jeanine Howard this week stunned the court by sentencing self-confessed rapist, Sir Young, to a mild 45-day prison term and five year probation, instead of the maximum 20-year jail stint.
Young, 20, pleaded guilty to raping the girl at Booker T. Washington High School, Dallas, in 2011 when he was 18, even as she cried out ‘no’ and ‘stop’.
While Young will be labeled a sex offender for life, Howard exempted him from standard sex offender restrictions: he doesn’t have to stay away from children, attend sex offender treatment, undergo a sex offender evaluation or refrain from watching pornography.
Howard told Dallas News she issued the light sentence based partially on medical records which indicated the girl had three sexual partners and had given birth to a baby. She also described Young as ‘not your typical sex offender’.
‘My job is not to make people happy. My job is to follow the Constitution and do the right thing. I will always do the right thing,’ she said.
However the ruling has shocked and devastated the victim, now 17, who denies having ever been pregnant.
‘I have never been pregnant ever,’ she told WFAA. ‘And three partners? I don’t even know where she got this. I feel like this was her way of trying to make herself feel better.’
She said she was just starting to come to terms with the rape and her decision to prosecute her attacker, until she heard Howard’s comments.
‘It was a slap in the face,’ she said. ‘I thought I was going to get help. I thought that it would be taken care of, and I wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.’
She had testified during the trial that she said ‘no’ and ‘stop’ during the assault and had only wanted to kiss him.
The victim also said she regrets coming forward about the 2011 assault.
‘I did what I was supposed to do. I went to the law about this situation,’ she said. ‘(But the sentence) that says everything I went through was for nothing.’
She added: ‘It would have been better for me not to say anything.
Young, meanwhile, testified last week that he is engaged and his fiancée is pregnant. They plan to get married on her birthday in November, according to Dallas News. He also reportedly is about to start a new job.