Teacher gets 30 days jail for raping 14-year old student who later killed herself

[davidn3600]

A Yellowstone County district judge Monday ordered a former Senior High teacher convicted of raping a 14-year-old female student who later committed suicide to spend 30 days in jail.

Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced Stacey Dean Rambold to 15 years in prison, with all but 31 days suspended, for sexual intercourse without consent.

Rambold, 54, will be given credit for one day already served. He was handcuffed and led to jail at the close of the hearing.

The judge's sentence was not received well by the girl's mother, who repeatedly screamed "You people suck!" and stormed out of the courtroom.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/former-senior-high-teacher-gets-days-for-rape-of-student/article_b1f84190-ef23-5868-8799-b779c0421dc1.html

[Triana]

1. The man appears to have serious issues.

It does seem a ridiculously light sentence, though I understand the man's life and career were ruined - he ruined them himself. And his victim is dead. He may as well be a murderer. The judge used typical rape apologist thinking:

The judge stated that the victim was "as much in control of the situation" as Rambold.

The judge also said Morales was "older than her chronological age."

Bullshit.

[LisaLynne]

2. The judge's statements ...

are disgusting. That person needs to not ever preside over another case, but in our culture, hardly anyone will look twice.

[Gormy Cuss]

19. +1 n/t

[uponit7771]

66. +1

[Rob H.]

30. His attorney sounds like a real piece of work, too

Rambold's attorney, Jay Lansing, argued Monday for the suspended sentence. He said Rambold lost his career, his marriage and his home and has suffered a "scarlet letter of the Internet" as a result of publicity about the case.
...
Rambold's criminal history includes only a traffic violation, but now he will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, the attorney said.

Lansing asked the judge to "consider how he's been punished to this point."

Yeah, losing everything and having to register as a sex offender does seem overly harsh---wait, no, it doesn't, BECAUSE HE RAPED A 14-YEAR-OLD.

[seabeyond]

35. certainly can hear these men feeling it is their privilege, right to take... in these cases.

this is really something.

a loss of life. and this is what these two men reduce it to.

[Rob H.]

39. That's the thing that pisses me off most

They're whining about how his life is ruined (which is his own damned fault so he should shut the fuck up about it) but they're apparently too damned clueless and/or insensitive to realize that, yeah, his life might be in the toilet now (again, something he did to himself) but at least he's still alive. His victim isn't.

[TinkerTot55]

38. "BECAUSE HE RAPED A 14-YEAR OLD"......

W H O I S N O W D E A D......... B E C A U S E O F H I M.

[Rob H.]

40. Yep

He's got a hell of lot of nerve complaining about how his life is going right now because he did it all to himself and at least he's still alive.

Edit: welcome to DU!

[uponit7771]

67. +1

[TinkerTot55]

43. Sorry, amending my post.....

...according to links in the article, this teacher had been "warned" in 2004 about a similar incident, not necessarily rape, but some inappropriate contact with a minor.

That translates into BUDDING PEDOPHILE.
The school district should be sued, for not removing this man from any position in the district that brought him into contact with children.

There must be some recourse for the family, to have that judge censored, and the sentence for the teacher vacated and/or lengthened.
WTFrack is wrong with our country's moral compass these days? Seems once we let Reagan and his cronies off for their criminal actions, and then the Bushes, and then the Wall Street Gangs, everyone and his brother thinks laws are just "guidelines" to be ignored, if you want.

[whathehell]

54. What?...You mean fourteen year old girls aren't the "equals" of 54 year old men?

"older than her chronological age'...Of course...I'm sure she was downright Middle Aged like the perp.

This is the kind of stuff that REALLY wants to make you run for the torches and pitchforks.

If this piece of shit isn't thrown off the bench, all hope is lost for that district.

[Snake Plissken]

3. The judge sounds like a pedophile

he probably thought 30 days was a harsh sentence

[bullwinkle428]

4. I was literally going to ask if this took place in Saudi Arabia, but

I should have known better.

K&R.

[sybylla]

5. I thought the same thing.

There are still far too many places in this country where it's dangerous to be a woman - or a girl in this case.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

9. No kidding. This judge should not be serving on the bench

for giving such a ridiculously light sentence. 30 days?

On edit.

Rambold's attorney, Jay Lansing, argued Monday for the suspended sentence. He said Rambold lost his career, his marriage and his home and has suffered a "scarlet letter of the Internet" as a result of publicity about the case.

I don't care that he has lost it all. As a rapist he should lose everything and be locked up for a long time.

30 days? Really?

[RebelOne]

18. I was thinking England.

From what I have read in British newspapers, it seems that most criminals get off with a slap on the wrist.

[kelliekat44]

6. You just don't incarcerate a white man in Montana for raping a teen.

It just isn't done. I would love to see more outrage about this on the national media and Rev Al protesting the disparity of incarceration between the races. This brings it home in a big way and would even get some conservatives riled up...maybe?

[theHandpuppet]

7. That judge should be removed from the bench

Is there no recourse? No mechanism by which this misogynist piece of shit is barred from ever seeing the inside of a courtroom again?

[Orrex]

8. Well, this minor inconvenience will certainly teach him a lesson

30 days? Golly! I bet he'll think twice or maybe even three times before he rapes another child.

[BainsBane]

10. This is rape culture in action.

[theHandpuppet]

12. +1000

Yep. Just one blatant example among many.

[Nay]

21. It sure is. I can only weep for that poor girl. nt

[AnotherMcIntosh]

11. Judge G. Todd Baugh has been known to give out other light sentences.

As an example, in a case in which a 55-year-old Billings woman had been convicted 12 times for DUI, Judge Todd approved a three-year suspended sentence for the 13th time that the police caught her.

However, he also gave her a stern warning that if she drives drunk and kills someone, she

"will spend some real time in prison."

http://catcountry1029.com/tags/district-judge-g-todd-baugh/

[dickthegrouch]

52. If she kills someone by her drunk driving

He should go to jail as an accessory having imposed too light a sentence.
No Tolerance for drunk drivers. Sentence should multiply by ten each time they are caught. if that means 10,000 years in jail with no possibility of parole, sounds about right to me.

[lapislzi]

13. Judge's address is in the comments

I won't post it here, but if any DUer should wander over there and find it...well...

[steve2470]

14. totally disgusting decision, unfit for office nt

[Demeter]

15. THIRTY DAYS!

What about 30 YEARS?

[KansDem]

16. Good think he wasn't smoking a doobie when he did it! Then he'd be in REAL trouble!

[SammyWinstonJack]

36. Yeah, no kidding.

[The Wizard]

17. The Judge is on the take (NT)

[SylviaD]

25. Unfortunately not. He's just a prime example of the "normal" anti-victim, anti-women mindset. n/t

[90-percent]

20. This is a ghastly hypothetical

But,

If I was a psycho predator that really liked raping girls, I'd consider 30 days in jail a fair price to pay. A bargain, actually.

The magnitude of the crime demands 30 years minimum w/o possibility of parole.

A terrible injustice.

-90% Jimmy

[City Lights]

22. 30 days?

[totodeinhere]

23. 30 days for him, 30 years for Chelsea Manning.

Something is seriously out of whack here.

[seabeyond]

26. consistent. Manning struck a female officer and no repercussions.

so, seems to me when raping or hitting a woman, no action taken is the norm.

[BlueJazz]

33. "Manning struck a female officer"

I didn't know about that. I'm surprised that that was not added to the charges.

[seabeyond]

34. i do not know

what publication in UK is trash or not. here is one story but there is plenty of info out there. i had heard this from the beginning.

The 24-year-old private warned that he was in emotional anguish and was involved in a number of violent incidents after being deployed to Iraq but details of his behaviour were never passed up a chaotic chain-of-command, his court martial hearing was told.

Captain Casey Fulton, who served in the same unit, said on Sunday that during one late night shift in May 2010 she found Pte Manning pinned to the ground by his female superior, Specialist Jihrleah Showman.
"[Showman] said he had struck her and she had a big red welt on her face," Captain Fulton said.

The incident came weeks after Pte Manning sent an anguished email to a sergeant, where he said his gender identity issues left him unable to work or think and even attached a photograph of himself dressed as a woman. The young soldier, who was forced by military regulations to conceal his homosexuality, sometimes referred to himself as "Breanna".

But rather than alert his superiors, Master Sergeant Paul Adkins tried to deal with the situation himself, and only told his commanders of the email after Pte Manning was arrested at the end of May 2010, the court was told.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8964543/Bradley-Manning-attacked-female-soldier-and-sent-picture-of-himself-as-a-woman.html

[BlueJazz]

41. Thanks for the info.

[Bluenorthwest]

42. The Telegraph is very right wing, so I don't take their stories at face value.

I'd need a source that is not so deeply conservative. From 2009, just for example:
"History will show that George W Bush was right"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/4241865/History-will-show-that-George-W-Bush-was-right.html

2013:
"Bill Clinton's endorsement 'similar to doomed George H.W. Bush re-election bid'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9521626/Bill-Clintons-endorsement-similar-to-doomed-George-H.W.-Bush-re-election-bid.html

I don't know about the story you are posting, but you sort of asked about the Telegraph, so there it is.

[seabeyond]

44. i know trashy is in the UK. hence me saying, a simple google will give plenty of sources.

ones that will be more acceptable. thanks for info, still wont remember in the future which one is ok or not. too many are tabloid'ish.

[blackspade]

37. I believe she is doing 35 years

So, no the situations are not consistent or comparable.

[seabeyond]

45. manning is doing 35 yrs for something that has nothing to do with hitting a female officer.

that is an obvious. that is a given. that is the point that is being made. that i am so very sure you get... but, pretending that you do not. hence, wasting a moment of my precious time to reiterate that when abusing a woman, or raping a girl, no time given.

the post i replied to compared two very different situations. when making it more comparable, it is consistent punishment. nothing.

right?

[blackspade]

49. I don't think that Manning hitting her supervisor had anything to do

with her superior's gender.
She reportedly assaulted fellow male soldiers as well.
Striking one of her supervisors is not abuse, it was a physical assault that was dealt with by an administrative punishment by a female officer.

Your time is what you make of it. If you feel the time is wasted in a conversation, then don't have one.

[seabeyond]

51. look at the comment i originally replied to. argue that. that is the ONLY thing i made a statement

about. all the rest you post has nothing to do with what i posted.

manning hit a female superior and was not punished. a girl was raped and the man was not punished. consistency. 35 yrs jail was not a comparable statement. the one i made was comparable.

[blackspade]

65. But Manning was punished for this assault.

As I explained.

The original comment that you replied to was pointing out how Manning was given a 35 year sentence for a document release while this asshole was given 30 days for raping a 14 year old girl.
It underscores the point that our society is permissive of violence against women/girls while hammering folks for non violent offenses like document releases and pot smoking.

So no, your comparison to Manning, who was given punishment detail for the assault on her specialist supervisor, is not comparable in any way to the rape of a 14 year old girl.

I've said my piece, so I'm done highjacking this thread.

I'll focus instead on the injustice that this asshole teacher and judge did to this poor girl and her family.
It's despicable and is indicative of a permissiveness for rape in our society that should not go unchallenged.

[Flying Squirrel]

56. Technically

Not an officer or even a non-commissioned officer. Specialist is just a higher pay grade, so regardless of gender this would just be seen as a "squabble" among equals. If she had been a Corporal rather than a Specialist (both E-4 but a Corporal is a non-commissioned officer) then I'd be right there with ya on disciplinary action. The armed forces are already floating in a sea of paperwork, and beauracracy - I can't even imagine how much worse it would be if every altercation between a PVT/PFC/SPC were punished based on pay grade.

[seabeyond]

57. admittedly, i know nothing about the military.

female superior, Specialist Jihrleah Showman.

but, every time i have seen this printed up, it has been said she was superior to manning.

[Flying Squirrel]

64. Superior in rank, yes

And a disciplinary charge COULD have therefore been made. In practice, though, it's pretty much an automatic pay grade increase with time and the higher-ups make little distinction between anyone from E-1 to E-4 pay grade (Private through Specialist) unless one is promoted to Corporal which is a Junior NCO (non-commissioned officer) and requires extra leadership training. I guess the point here to me is that by not making the charge, the Army is in fact being very egalitarian - being gender-blind as well as color-blind. If the specialist were male then there almost certainly would have been no charge made; so, if there had been a charge made because the specialist was female, it would probably have been perceived to be reverse discrimination. The female specialist in question would probably not have wished for this kind of attention.

[exboyfil]

24. Money quote:

"Rambold had been warned by school officials in 2004 to avoid touching or being alone with female students."

The school knew he had a problem, and they still let him around this poor girl. I am surprised the family got less than a $100K settlement from the school district. The taxpayers of the district are fortunate that I was not on that jury.

It appears that when the girl killed herself, the prosecution had difficulty proving the case. The original sentence (treatment and the the prosecution would not go forward if the treatment was completed was the the first abomination). Part of that agreement was having this "thing" admit to the rape. After he failed the treatment the prosecution went back in and tried to charge him. The judge declared that the violation of the original deal was a minor one that should not subject this "thing" to this level of prosecution. I wonder if the prosecution could have gone ahead without the confession?

[Genghis_Sean]

27. Legal matter?

I'm guessing it's because with the girl dead, they would have a hard time prosecuting him without a witness?

[LisaLynne]

28. He was convicted. nt

[davidn3600]

29. He plead guilty

It never went to a jury.

In October 2008, prosecutors charged Rambold with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent, alleging that the then-49-year-old man had an ongoing sexual relationship with Morales, who was 14 at the time.

While the case was pending, and a few weeks before her 17th birthday, Morales took her own life.

The girl's death caused problems for the prosecution, and in July 2010 Rambold entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Yellowstone County Attorney's Office.

The agreement called for prosecutors to put the case on hold for three years. The charges would be dismissed, the agreement stated, if Rambold completed a sex offender treatment program and complied with other conditions.

He then got kicked out of that program and prosecutors went back to court asking for a lengthy prison sentence. The judge gave 30 days.

[LisaLynne]

31. Oh I see.

But that doesn't mean that anyone didn't think they couldn't get a conviction. If that were the case, you would think he wouldn't have plead.

[blackspade]

32. Suspended for what fucking reason?

Disgusting.

[Xyzse]

46. I don't understand how

Rape can have so much less consequences than doing drugs.

This is disgusting beyond words.

[justiceischeap]

47. Wonder if the judge can be sanctioned in some way.

This also could/should be taken up with the bar.

[NuclearDem]

48. What rape culture?

[bigwillq]

50. Should be 30 years (nt)

[joeybee12]

53. Anyone know if you can recall POS judges in Montana?

[Jenoch]

55. Somebody in the 13th Judicial District in Montana needs to run against this POS judge.

I don't know when Judge G. Todd Baugh's next election is, but he needs to be defeated by somebody, hopefully somebody who will not pull shit like this case.

Also, this is another news story where the location of the events is not included in the story. Would it have been too difficult to include the name of the school or at least the name of the city in which it is located? It's Billings, by the way.

[seabeyond]

59. Billings, by the way

thanks. i looked to see where it was this morning. only saw yellowstone. so assume that area. but appreciate knowing where. i drove throw montana a couple weeks ago. first time in that part of the country.

[PotatoChip]

61. Are there elections for judges in Montana? Anyone know?

In some states, judges are appointed.

If there are elections, I too hope that he is defeated.

What an outrage!

[Jenoch]

62. I looked it up, yes there are elections, on a non-partisan basis,

for district judges in Montana. This judge has said he will be running for re-election. So far, he is unopposed, but I don't know when the election is.

[PotatoChip]

63. Good.

Hopefully, now someone will oppose him. I didn't check out the comments (which I assume are mostly local), but I'm sure that plenty of people in his district don't approve of this ruling.

Thank you for looking it up.

[uponit7771]

68. +1

[meow2u3]

58. The judge ought to be doing some hard time

for trivializing the rape of a child instead of treating it like the hate crime it is.

[4Q2u2]

60. Lenny Bruce

"in the halls of justice the only justice is in the halls"

Not the complete solution but in what instance was Justice better served.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/charges-texas-father-beat-death-daughters-molester/story?id=16612071

I hope we do not have to now pay for this POS because he cannot work and needs a new identity. To call Mr. Baugh a Judge would be an insult to even Roy Bean. Is he even a Father himself?

[SamReynolds]

69. I was 15...

He was 20.

I'd been pining for him all that summer at the pool. He worked as a lifeguard, and this is going back to the 70's. I was sure I was ready just because my hormones were going crazy. I developed early, and I watched him watch me. I was one of the tens of millions of 15 year-old girls in the world that were just figuring out that they had some power over boys. Most of the women on this site went through the same thing even if they won't admit it.

That lifeguard became my husband many years later. I'm not going to detail our first 'real' encounter, but according to society, he should have gone to jail. He still would have asked me to marry him after reconnecting years later. I know I would have felt horrible if he did go to jail, as if it was my fault.

This particular case in the OP is not very pretty. The teacher definitely went well outside of bounds here. But the knee-jerk assumptions that this girl killed herself because 'she was raped', rather than she 'felt responsible' are very small-minded. It may be the case that she felt violated, but I know that that one time, I didn't feel 'violated' at all. And without some evidence, no one here knows why she killed herself either. I'm not happy with this ruling either, but I don't know the whole story, and neither do any of you.

I'm sorry if this was too deep for the screeching brigade to handle.