by Patrick H. Moore
Amazing grace! For once I have good news, news that will to some degree restore our faith in a legal system that often leaves us baffled, outraged and depressed. Of course, because this is legal news , there always has to be at least one loser. In this case the loser may well be Stacey Rambold, the former high school teacher and child-rapist, who last week got the shortest sentence in history, 30 days, for raping poor deceased Cherice Molazez.
The good news is that Judge G. Todd Baugh, the embattled jurist who has come under increasing fire for handing out the mini-sentence to Rambold, has ordered a new sentencing hearing for the former teacher. Matthew Brown of the Associated Press writes:
A Montana judge under fire for his comments about a 14-year-old victim in a schoolhouse rape case has ordered a new sentencing hearing for the former teacher who received just 30 days in prison for the crime.
In setting the hearing for Friday afternoon, District Judge G. Todd Baugh said Tuesday that state law appears to require a two-year mandatory minimum prison term for Stacey Rambold, 54, of Billings.
As you will recall, last week Baugh sentenced Rambold to 15 years with all but 31 days suspended and then — to add insult to injury — gave Rambold a one-day credit for time-served. Rambold began serving his mini-sentence last week at the state prison in Deer Lodge.
“In the Court’s opinion, imposing a sentence which suspends more than the mandatory minimum would be an illegal sentence,” Baugh wrote.
Of course, things seldom “come easy” in the legal world and there is a caveat:
According to Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito, the judge may lack authority to impose a longer sentence at this point because under state state law, an illegal sentence can only be remedied through the appeal process. Naturally, Twito stated that his office was already considering an appeal based on their belief that there was a two-year minimum requirement.
Twito said he will definitely be in Baugh’s courtroom on Friday but had no idea how the hearing might play out:
“I’ve done this a long time and I’m in an area I have not been in before.” This is Twito’s 16th year as a prosecutor.
Billings, Montana is not LA or New York City and things are done in a right neighborly fashion out there. Twito said members of his office, along with Rambold’s defense attorney, Jay Lansing, met informally with Baugh last week to discuss the case. (I bet they did: “Hey there, G. Todd, I hate to say this but we gotta little problem on our hands.“)
In one of his many attempts to save face, Baugh said in Tuesday’s order that the defendant’s presentencing memorandum claimed the minimum mandatory for sexual intercourse without consent was 30 days, and the state did not object until after the sentence was handed down.
Moralez, of course, killed herself before Rambold’s case came to trial, which left the prosecution in a very bad position. Without their main witness, Cherice Moralez, they could well have had trouble proving that the rape took place, which led them to strike a deal with Rambold that allowed him to avoid prison.
Rambold however — loose cannon that he is – violated the terms of his court-ordered sex offender treatment class by allegedly seeing his under-aged nieces covertly — albeit platonically — and apparently sleeping with at least one adult woman.
The court records show that Baugh’s original sentence of 30 days was in line with what Rambold had requested.
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The judge has been skewered by women’s rights activists, elected officials AND MANY DEDICATED FOLLOWERS OF THIS BLOG for the excessively light sentence he awarded Rambold and for saying his 14-year-old victim, Cherise Moralez, was “older than her chronological age”, and asserting that she had some control over Rambold.
The anti-Judge Baugh folks were out in force, in the hundreds, at last week’s rally outside the Yellowstone County Court House calling for Baugh’s resignation. News of Friday’s hearing has done little to assuage their wrath:
“The judge cannot take back the words he said when he blamed the victim. As far as we’re concerned, Judge Baugh has lost the trust of this community,” said Eran Thompson with Not in Our Town, a Billings group that promotes diversity and works against hate crimes.
The 71-year-old Baugh was first elected to the bench in 1984. Since then he has been re-elected every six years since without opposition. He’s up for re-election next year.
Click here to view our earlier posts discussing this very troubling case:
Teacher Given Only 30 Days for Rape of 14-Year-Old Girl
Outrage Over 30-Day Sentence for Montana Schoolteacher Rapist