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Montana panel looks at sanctioning judge for 30-day rape sentence
Source: Reuters
Montana panel looks at sanctioning judge for 30-day rape sentence
BY LAURA ZUCKERMAN
Tue Feb 4, 2014 8:47pm EST
(Reuters) - A Montana panel that oversees jurists is seeking to discipline a judge for sentencing an ex-teacher who raped a 14-year-old girl who later killed herself to just 30 days in prison and for declaring the girl partly to blame in her own rape, documents showed on Tuesday.
The Montana Judicial Standards Commission has found that District Judge G. Todd Baugh committed judicial misconduct when he imposed the light sentence last August against former Billings high school teacher Stacey Rambold, 54.
The panel said in a complaint filed with the state Supreme Court that Baugh undermined public confidence in the judiciary, created an appearance of impropriety and "justified the unlawful sentence by blaming the child victim," according to papers from the commission.
Commission attorney Malin Stearns Johnson, who wrote the document, said the judge's conduct warranted disciplinary action but she did not say in the complaint if she was seeking a reprimand or Baugh's ouster.
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BY LAURA ZUCKERMAN
Tue Feb 4, 2014 8:47pm EST
(Reuters) - A Montana panel that oversees jurists is seeking to discipline a judge for sentencing an ex-teacher who raped a 14-year-old girl who later killed herself to just 30 days in prison and for declaring the girl partly to blame in her own rape, documents showed on Tuesday.
The Montana Judicial Standards Commission has found that District Judge G. Todd Baugh committed judicial misconduct when he imposed the light sentence last August against former Billings high school teacher Stacey Rambold, 54.
The panel said in a complaint filed with the state Supreme Court that Baugh undermined public confidence in the judiciary, created an appearance of impropriety and "justified the unlawful sentence by blaming the child victim," according to papers from the commission.
Commission attorney Malin Stearns Johnson, who wrote the document, said the judge's conduct warranted disciplinary action but she did not say in the complaint if she was seeking a reprimand or Baugh's ouster.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/05/us-usa-montana-rape-idUSBREA1403Y20140205
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