www.justiceforchandra.com

[jane]

Hasn't this judge heard of statutory rape?
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quote from CBC News

Saskatchewan will appeal sentence given to man who sexually assaulted 12-year-old

Last Updated Fri, 05 Sep 2003 22:04:48

MELFORT, SASK. - A judge's decision to sentence a man convicted of sexual assault to no jail time will be appealed.


INDEPTH: Aboriginal Canadians

The Saskatchewan Justice Department says it will appeal the sentence given to a man convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
The application was filed with the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Friday afternoon.

Dean Edmondson, of Tisdale, was handed a conditional sentence with no jail time.

Sanjeev Anand, an expert in criminal law, is applauding the province's decision. "A gang rape situation or a situation involving two or more individuals should be treated as a more serious type of sexual assault," he said.


YOUR SPACE: Readers respond to this story

Anand argues that, given the facts in this case, a conditional sentence is inappropriate. He says the usual sentence for a serious sexual assault would include time in prison. Anand says it is difficult to appeal a sentence. but he believes the province has a good chance of succeeding.

Two years ago, a 12-year-old Cree girl was picked-up by some men near Tisdale. They gave her beer and the girl was later assaulted on a desolate country road.

Three men were charged, but Edmondson was the only one convicted.

Judge Fred Kovatch ruled on Thursday he couldn't ignore allegations the girl had been raised in an abusive home. That evidence, he said, supported the defence theory that the girl was the sexual aggressor.

Edmondson was given a conditional sentence.

"The message he (Judge Kovatch) sent was it's okay to sexually abuse a child and you can find ways of moving around it, blame the child in this case, and basically gave permission to carry on with these kinds of activities," said Kripa Sekhar of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.

Written by CBC News Online staff
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"They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority".
Gerald Massey

[propria]

what a frightening story, jane!

any judge who believes that a 12 year old girl is capable of being a sexual aggressor, rather than a rape victim, needs to be removed from the bench, and FAST! if this child was sexually molested through some or all of her short life, it is entirely possible that she responded to these men in a somewhat sexual manner ... in the mind of molested children, sexual behavior quickly becomes the only means the child recognizes for getting the attention she desparately needs. however, there is NOthing that justifies a grown man responding to such overtures from a child, and the fact that this judge fails to see that important truth makes me wonder just what he might have been up to behind closed doors. as far as i'm concerned, this judge and the perpetrater should be locked up together where they can molest each other at will for the rest of their natural lives.


nanci
_________________
the Truth has a name, and there is power in that Name!

[rd]

from the NY Times today, here's the way it's supposed to work. 12 years old?

rd

(fair use)

Man Charged With Raping Girl He Met on Internet
By LISA W. FODERARO

WHITE PLAINS, Sept. 4 — An Ossining mother came home from work one day last month to discover that her kitchen screen had been cut and pots overturned. Nothing had been stolen, but another detail — a teddy bear had been rearranged in her 13-year-old daughter's bedroom while the girl was out of town — seemed even more peculiar.
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The mother's suspicions led to the arraignment today on charges of rape and sodomy of a 20-year-old Long Island man who the authorities said had formed an online relationship with the girl.

The case was the latest in a string of Internet sex crimes that the Westchester district attorney, Jeanine F. Pirro, has pursued in recent years, leading to the convictions of a former school board member, a Yonkers official and many others.

"This is another example of how pedophiles are using the Internet to make contact with our children," Ms. Pirro said in a news conference. They are not merely exchanging "indecent materials with them and arranging to meet them," she said, "but they are actually raping and sodomizing these kids."

The man, Ricardo Brice, communicated with the girl over four months via an America Online chat room, officials said. Then, at the end of July, the authorities say, Mr. Brice, whose screen name incorporates the words "pimps" and "thugs," went to the girl's house, where they had sexual relations — considered rape and sodomy under the law because of their ages.

On Aug. 18, Mr. Brice returned to the home, Ms. Pirro said, but this time the girl was staying at her father's home for the week in another Westchester town. The teddy bear was moved from its usual perch to the windowsill, and the closet appeared to have been rifled through, Ms. Pirro said.

"He came back with, we believe, the intentions of rendezvousing with the 13-year-old again," she said.

Investigators from the district attorney's high-tech crimes unit assumed the identity of the 13-year-old online and established computer contact with Mr. Brice.

"We were able to identify who the defendant was and where he lived," Ms. Pirro said. "It was a combination of a child giving us information as well as putting together a forensic paper trail through the computer."

After searching Mr. Brice's home in Central Islip on Wednesday, detectives took him into custody. This morning, he was arraigned in the Ossining village court and charged with rape in the second degree, sodomy in the second degree and burglary in the third degree, felonies carrying a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. He is being held without bail at the Westchester County Jail. Ms. Pirro's office said Mr. Brice would likely be represented by Legal Aid, but said it did not have the name of a specific lawyer.

"I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that she is 13 years old," Ms. Pirro said. "And here's the bottom line: She was 13. It's rape. It's sodomy. End of story."

end quote