Montana Court Suspends Judge Who Said High School Freshman Was ‘In Control’ of Teacher Rape

The Montana judge who drew national condemnation
for saying a 14-year-old rape victim was asking for it
will be suspended without pay for one month. District Judge
Todd Baugh had said in court that the victim—who later killed
herself—was just as much to blame as her attacker, whom he
sentenced to serve a mere 31 days in jail. 

Her attacker, by the way, was her 47-year-old public school
teacher, Stacey Dean Rambold, and he admitted to “sexual
intercourse without consent.” But to Baugh, the victim was “a
troubled youth” who looked “older than her chronological age,” and
this wasn’t the “beat-up rape” variety—which meant the freshman
girl entrusted to this man’s care “was probably as much in control
of the situation” as he was. 

The state’s judicial ethics panel filed a complaint against
Baugh, asking the Montana Supreme Court to publicly reprimand him.
But the court took it a step further: In a
decision Wednesday, it ordered Baugh—who is retiring at the end
of the year—to be suspended from the bench withiout pay for his
last month.

“There is no place in the Montana judiciary for perpetuating the
stereotype that women and girls are responsible for sexual crimes
committed against them,” it stated.

In April, the court vacated Rambold’s original sentence and
remanded for resentencing by a new judge. On Tuesday, it denied his
request to reconsider the ruling.