02/19/2014 // West Palm Beach, Florida, US // JusticeNewsFlash // Justice News Flash // (press release)
Alabama – A Montana judge has admitted to fault for being in violation of judicial standards in making the suggestion that a rape victim was partly to blame. As reported by Reuters, on Tuesday Judge G. Todd Baugh invited censure from the state’s high court over the issue, as shown in legal documents.
Todd was subjected to public scrutiny last year during the sentencing of a former teacher convicted of the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl, who later committed suicide. A Montana panel that oversees jurists filed a complaint with the state Supreme Court seeking disciplinary action over the sentence as well as statements made by Todd such as the girl appeared “older than her chronological age.”
Papers from the Montana Judicial Standards Commission accused Baugh of justifying “the unlawful sentence by blaming the child victim.”
Baugh is quoted as writing in legal documents, “My remarks … were the proximate cause of the firestorm of criticism and, thus, in violation of” judicial standards.”
The judge; however, stated of the accusation that the rape sentence was over lenient, “It is a subjective observation. In any sentence, it is possible that some see it as lenient while others may see it as harsh.”
It was yet to be made clear on Tuesday what type of disciplinary action Baugh may face or when.
This report is provided by Justice News Flash – Montana Legal News
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