An Illinois judge is dealing with warmth for reversing an 18-year-old man’s sexual assault conviction at the teen’s sentencing remaining week – announcing the 148 days he spent in jail since his arrest was enough, experiences said.
Adams County Judge Robert Adrian issued the beautiful reversal remaining Monday after finding Drew Clinton in charge of one rely of prison sexual assault at an October bench trial, the Herald-Whig reported.
“Mr. Clinton has served virtually 5 months within the county jail, 148 days,” Adrian stated, in step with a court docket transcript obtained by means of the newspaper.
“For what came about in this case, this is a number of punishment. That would be a just sentence.”
Clinton was convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old woman at a graduation party remaining May.
He had confronted a mandatory minimal sentence of four years. Adrian’s decision got here after Clinton’s legal professionals filed two post-trial motions and the judge ruled prosecutors did not end up their case, the newspaper reported.
Following Adrian’s ruling, the distraught sufferer went public together with her tale – recounting the sexual assault to newshounds and detailing her emotional reaction when she learned Adrian was once set loose.
“I woke up at my pal’s place with a pillow over my face so I couldn’t be heard and Drew Clinton within me,” stated Cameron Vaughan, WGEM reported.
“I requested him to stop more than one times and he wouldn’t. I in the end got off the couch and driven him off of me and he jumped up and just began taking part in video games as though nothing had came about,” she mentioned.
Vaughan said she “right away” left the court and cried in the bathroom after studying Clinton’s conviction used to be tossed.
The Quincy Area Network Against Domestic Abuse on Tuesday blasted the judge’s choice.
“The verdict and Adrian’s feedback send a chilling message to other rape sufferers that their conduct, now not the rapists’, will be judged,” the group stated in a remark to WGEM.
“Shame the sufferers, free the rapists. This judgment reinforces the truth that requirements for ladies have always been impossibly top whilst they are impossibly low for men.”
Vaughan’s father described his daughter’s devastation in an interview with the Herald-Whig.
“It’s worse now than it was [prior to], as a result of no longer only does she now not have her justice, however now she feels like she spoke up for not anything, and you recognize that hurts,” the father informed the newspaper.
“Now she needs she wouldn’t have even stated the rest.”
This post first appeared on Nypost.com
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