Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

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Lord Jim
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Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by Lord Jim »

:arg :evil:
A 67-year-old was convicted of a sex crime. The judge said the child victims were ‘an aggressor.’

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A Kansas judge is under fire not only for giving a sex crime defendant a significantly reduced sentence but also for suggesting that the victims — two girls ages 13 and 14 — are partially culpable.

“I do find that the victims in this case are more of an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct,”
Leavenworth County District Judge Michael Gibbens said during a recent sentencing hearing just outside of Kansas City, Kan. “They were certainly selling things monetarily that’s against the law for even an adult to sell.”

Gibbens also said he’s “not convinced” that the victims, who are sisters, suffered substantial harm.

The defendant is Raymond Soden, a 67-year-old man who was arrested last year after, prosecutors said, he used social media to solicit sex from the minors. Soden reached a deal with the Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office, and in December, was sentenced to five years in prison — about eight years short of the minimum punishment recommended in the state’s sentencing guidelines.

The case attracted widespread attention this week after the Kansas City Star obtained a transcript of the sentencing hearing. On Monday, the newspaper published an editorial saying that Gibbens “made a serious mistake” by setting Soden’s sentence so low and that he shouldn’t be a judge.

“If Gibbens believes that child sex abuse victims are somehow aggressors, he doesn’t belong on the bench,” [I'd say that's a fair and accurate assessment...] according to the paper’s editorial board.

A call to Gibbens’s office Tuesday was not returned.

Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said his office is reviewing the possibility of appealing the sentence. Judges are bound by Kansas’s sentencing guidelines, and there must be a “substantial and compelling reason” for judges to go below or above the recommended punishments. Thompson’s office can argue that it doesn’t exist in Soden’s case.

Thompson said it would be unethical for him to comment on what Gibbens said in his courtroom.
More:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... 9062767b08
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dales
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by dales »

These are the 747 inmates awaiting execution on California's death row. A California Supreme Court decision has kept in place a measure passed by voters to speed up executions. Due to delays and legal challenges, the state hasn't executed a prisoner in a decade.Aug 24, 2017

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


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Joe Guy
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by Joe Guy »

Any judge who partially blames children for being raped should be investigated and have his computer confiscated and scanned.

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dales
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by dales »

Gives credence to the old saying: "The law is an ass."

Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.


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RayThom
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Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by RayThom »

And Jerry Sandusky's lawyers request a new trial -- it's denied -- and they petition for re-sentencing.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/st ... esentenced

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Lord Jim
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by Lord Jim »

Well, at least judicial idiocy is not confined to the United States:
Judge could lose job for berating rape victim: ‘Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?’

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A Canadian judge is facing the possibility of removal from the bench after he faulted a 19-year-old woman who said she was raped for not doing enough to defend herself during the alleged attack and suggesting that she wanted to have sex.

Among Federal Court Justice Robin Camp's remarks during a 2014 sexual assault trial, according to a notice of allegations posted on the Canadian Judicial Council website:

"Why couldn't you just keep your knees together? Why didn't you just sink your bottom down into the basin so he couldn't penetrate you?"

Young women, the judge said, "want to have sex, particularly if they're drunk,"
according to the notice.

He also said that "some sex and pain sometimes go together" and "that's not necessarily a bad thing."

Camp's controversial remarks resulted in an investigation by the Canadian Judicial Council, a federal body that polices judges.

He is expected to testify Friday before a five-member committee as part of a week-long proceeding that began Tuesday and will end next week in Calgary, Alberta.

The committee will decide on Camp's fate after hearing evidence and testimony.

Camp made the comments during a five-day trial in June 2014. At the time, he was appointed to the Alberta Provincial Court Criminal Division in Calgary. He became a federal judge last year.

The woman had accused a Calgary man, Alexander Wagar, of raping her over a bathroom sink during a house party.

Camp acquitted Wagar in September 2014. The case was appealed, [I guess under the Canadian system, the prosecution can appeal an acquittal]and the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned Camp's ruling, according to a statement of facts. Wagar is scheduled for a second trial in November.

The Canadian Judicial Council's investigation began in November 2015, after four law professors filed a complaint against Camp, who later recused himself from any cases involving sex crimes, according to the statement of facts.

Members of the public later followed suit in filing complaints.

In December, the Alberta attorney general filed a formal complaint against Camp and referred the matter to what's called an "inquiry committee," which is made up of three judges and two lawyers.

The committee will decide whether Camp should be removed from the bench.

According to the notice of allegations, Camp's "rude and derogatory" comments "belittle(d) and trivialize(d) the nature of the allegations." He also made "stereotypical assumptions about how someone confronted with sexual assault would or would not behave."

[Judge in Stanford sex assault case leaves criminal court]

The woman, whose identity has been concealed, said the judge's remarks made her hate herself, CBC News reported.
More:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... 200fcc841e

Okay, so to review the timeline here:

In June of 2014, Camp makes these outrageous remarks, publicly from the Bench.

In September of 2014, Camp issues his decision acquitting the rapist. That decision is appealed, and ultimately a new trial is ordered.

In November of 2015, The Canadian Judicial Council begins an investigation after a complaint is filed by four law professors which ultimately results in Camp agreeing to recuse himself from any cases involving sex crimes.

Then in the meantime, with all of this going on, Camp not only doesn't get removed or have any other disciplinary action imposed, but he actually gets appointed just last year to a higher judicial position...

How does that happen? :shrug
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Scooter
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by Scooter »

He was appointed to the federal bench in June 2015, before the appeal of the case in question was heard and before any complaints about his comments had been filed, but after the appeal had been filed in March 2015, including his comments among the grounds for requesting it. Why his vetting for the federal appointment did not appear to catch those comments, which would have been highly publicized by the time of his appointment, was a question that the then justice minister never deigned to answer. He was removed from the bench in 2016 by a 5-0 vote of the Canadian Judicial Council.
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Lord Jim
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by Lord Jim »

My bad...

That story was linked to the page for the story in the OP, and when I followed it, I should have bothered to look at the date on the byline:

By Kristine Phillips
September 9, 2016
:oops:

Glad to hear he's out...
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Scooter
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by Scooter »

And I misspoke as to the process, a committee appointed by CJC to investigate voted 5-0 that he should be removed, the CJC then voted 19-4 to recommend to Parliament that it should remove him, and he resigned the following day.
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by MGMcAnick »

Joe Guy wrote:Any judge who partially blames children for being raped should be investigated and have his computer confiscated and scanned.
I'm sure investigations are not over. I'm glad this made the national news so it can't be swept under the local northeast KS rug.

Judges of his level are elected. They almost always stay in office unless they retire or something like this goes public. He was elected most recently last November.
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by BoSoxGal »

These judges you’ve been hearing about in the news are the tip of the iceberg - in the trenches, or gutters, of our criminal injustice system there a tens of thousands of such mindsets lurking behind the faces of the judiciary, law enforcement, social workers and lawyers.

That’s one of the biggest reasons I quit; it’s devastating to learn that the ideals to which you’ve dedicated your life’s energy are illusory at best.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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RayThom
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Re: Just In Case You Aren't Pissed Off Enough II...

Post by RayThom »

Lord Jim wrote:... Then in the meantime, with all of this going on, Camp not only doesn't get removed or have any other disciplinary action imposed, but he actually gets appointed just last year to a higher judicial position...

How does that happen? :shrug
Portnoy's Complaint?
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“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

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