Montana State Supreme Court Overturns Judge’s 30-Day Sentence in Schoolgirl Rape-Suicide Case

commentary by Patrick H. Moore

When Billings, Montana District Court Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced school-teacher Stacey Dean Rambold to 30 days in county jail on August 26, 2013 for the rape of a 14-year-old student, Cherice Morales, who later killed herself, it generated tremendous outrage both locally in Montana and all across the country. The outcry was based not only on the short duration of the sentence but also on offensive remarks Judge Baugh made at the time of sentencing.

Matthew Brown of the Associated Press writes:

When Baugh delivered the original sentence, he said the victim was “older than her chronological age” and “as much in control of the situation” as Rambold, who was in his late-40s at the time.

Baugh’s comments galvanized the good citizens of Billing and protesters poured out onto the streets of Billings by the hundreds. Ultimately, more than 56,000 online signatures were collected from people calling for the judge to resign. A disciplinary complaint against Baugh from the Judicial Standards Commission is pending with the state Supreme Court.

Now, however, nearly eight months later, the Montana Supreme Court has overturned a one-month prison sentence given by Judge Baugh to former high school teacher Stacey Rambold.

The rape victim, Cherice Morales, was 14 when the assaults occurred. When she was 16, with the case still pending, she killed herself.

It began in 2008 when Cherice, then 14, was a student at Billings Senior High School and Rambold, then 49, was a teacher. According to Cherice’s mother, Aulelia Hanlon, Rambold “groomed” her daughter in a manner that eventually led to the pair having sex. When school officials learned of the relationship, Rambold resigned. Later that year, he was charged with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent.

As the case meandered its way through the legal system, Cherice committed suicide. She was a few weeks shy of her 17th birthday.

Paul Vercammen and Kyung Lah of CNN report:

“As a result of the sexual assault and its aftermath, (Cherice) experienced severe emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment and fell into irreversible depression that tragically led to her taking her own life on February 6, 2010,” Cherice’s mother Auliea Hanlon said in a complaint filed against Rambold.

Hanlon told CNN the relationship was to blame for her daughter’s death.

“Well, it definitely had something to do with it,” she said. “A teenager’s whole life is about school and their friends, and he turned everyone against her.”

Scott Twito, a prosecutor with the Yellowstone County attorney’s office, voiced the opinion not only of his department but the community in general:

“This case is very important. As I’ve said before, this resulted in the loss of one of our young people in my community. We take these charges very seriously. And we fight for those victims.”

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Wednesday’s Supreme Court decisions cited in part the actions of District Judge G. Todd Baugh of Billings, who suggested the young victim shared responsibility for her rape.

The Christian Science Monitor reported:

Baugh apologized last week for his comments about the victim in a letter to the editor of the Billings Gazette.While this case has drawn wide attention, it’s fairly typical for victim blaming and other “minimizing of sexual assault cases” to occur, particularly in situations that involve teachers and students or that don’t fit traditional notions about rape, says Jennifer Long, director of AEquitas: The Prosecutors’ Resource on Violence Against Women, in Washington.

“Adolescent victims are consistently blamed for either seducing their rapist or for some other behaviors.”Members of the public have stepped up to protest in previous cases, such as the teen rapes in Steubenville, Ohio, and “to educate their own community and beyond about the importance of not victim-blaming,” Ms. Long says, “but it seems that we are still stuck in this cycle … where [some of] the very people who should know this information – judges, prosecutors, and other professionals – still believe in the myths and still engage in very dangerous practices.”

Based on the State Supreme Court decision, the case now goes back to a new judge for re-sentencing. (This is an ideal situation for the replacement judge to look good in the eyes of the community by talking tough while sentencing Rambold to a substantial amount of prison time.

Rambold’s head must be spinning. He has been free since completing his sentence last fall. Prosecutors for the state say he should serve a mandatory minimum of four years prison.

Naturally, at the appellate proceedings, Rambold’s attorneys argued that the original sentence of 30 days was appropriate. I don’t imagine anyone took them too seriously.

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In case readers are surprised (and still outraged) by the fact the prosecutors are seeking a mere four year sentence, it should be remembered that since the victim Cherice Morales is deceased, she can’t testify or issue a statement about what transpired in her relationship with Rambold. Thus, the prosecution would face evidentiary issues if they were to argue for the ten years or longer that many people believe the defendant should receive.

I agree that the original 30-day sentence handed down by Judge Baugh was much too lenient.

What I am struck by though – legal issues notwithstanding – is this. Let us, for the sake of the argument, give credence to Cherice’s mother’s claim, which is certainly persuasive, that the reason her daughter killed herself is because she was so grievously bedeviled by her peers after her affair with Rambold was made public.

I’m pretty sure that while she was involved with Rambold, Cherice never dreamed that the whole thing was going to blow up and that she’d be denounced by the other kids. But by sleeping with Rambold (if you can call it that), she crossed a line that somehow must have outraged her peers. Rather than viewing her as a sympathetic figure who was seduced and manipulated by a man pushing 50, which of course is what happened, they saw her as a “fallen women”, a veritable Hester Prynne (I wonder if The Scarlet Letter is taught at Billings Senior High School), someone to be condemned and denounced and ultimately destroyed.