Teenager Accused of Rape Deserves Leniency Because He's From a 'Good Family,' Judge Says
Source: New York Times
Teenager Accused of Rape Deserves Leniency Because Hes From a Good Family, Judge Says
The family court judge also said the victim should have been told that pressing charges would destroy the accuseds life.
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní
July 2, 2019
The 16-year-old girl was visibly intoxicated, her speech slurred, when a drunk 16-year-old boy sexually assaulted her in a dark basement during an alcohol-fueled pajama party in New Jersey, prosecutors said.
The boy filmed himself penetrating her from behind, her torso exposed, her head hanging down, prosecutors said. He later shared the cellphone video among friends, investigators said, and sent a text that said, When your first time having sex was rape.
But a family court judge said it wasnt rape. Instead, he wondered aloud if it was sexual assault, defining rape as something reserved for an attack at gunpoint by strangers.
He also said the young man came from a good family, attended an excellent school, had terrific grades and was an Eagle scout. Prosecutors, the judge said, should have explained to the girl and her family that pressing charges would destroy the boys life.
So he denied prosecutors motion to try the 16-year-old as an adult. He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college, Judge James Troiano of Superior Court said last year in a two-hour decision while sitting in Monmouth County.
Now the judge has been sharply rebuked by an appeals court in a scathing 14-page ruling that warned the judge against showing bias toward privileged teenagers.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/02/nyregion/judge-james-troiano-rape.html
elleng
(131,107 posts)monmouth4
(9,709 posts)hlthe2b
(102,359 posts)exboyfil
(17,865 posts)They should be higher if anything.
Harker
(14,034 posts)Amongst those who invented it, anyhow. Maybe honor stands a chance.
hlthe2b
(102,359 posts)behaviors as "sexual assault". While "rape means something to nearly everyone, so many people hear only the word "assault" and assume an improper "touch. Further, they typically assume the most benign of touch, no matter whether the victim is black & blue with a mandibular fracture, or describes other forced behaviors under knife or gunpoint. While all rape is sexual assault, not all sexual assault is rape, but when it legally applies, the word rape needs to be used IMO.
And this a-hole judge and all those like him need to go... and they need a big load of their cumulative karma delivered shortly thereafter.
pansypoo53219
(20,995 posts)can we look at what else this judge has ruled?
dalton99a
(81,570 posts)Troiano received his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University in 1972 and his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law at Stamford University in 1975.
alittlelark
(18,890 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,906 posts)Almost like affluenza?