Judge Jan Jurden, Asshole of the Day for March 31, 2014
by TeaPartyCat (Follow @TeaPartyCat)
What would it take to keep a man out of prison after he raped his 3-year-old daughter?
The answer should of course be NOTHING. But apparently is “lots and lots of inherited money”. Or at least that’s Judge Jan Jurden’s answer:
A Superior Court judge who sentenced an heir to the du Pont fortune to probation for raping his 3-year-old daughter wrote in her order that he “will not fare well” in prison and suggested that he needed treatment instead of time behind bars, according to Delaware Online.
Court records show that in Judge Jan Jurden’s sentencing order for Robert H. Richards IV she considered unique circumstances when deciding his punishment for fourth-degree rape. Her observation that prison life would adversely affect Richards confused several criminal justice authorities in Delaware, who said that her view that treatment was a better idea than prison is typically used when sentencing drug addicts, not child rapists.
Jurden gave Richards, who had no previous criminal record, an eight-year prison term, but suspended all the prison time for probation.
“Defendant will not fare well in Level 5 [prison] setting,” she wrote in her order.
Someone who molests his own 3-year-old has a problem. And ignoring what justice demands here, or how unevenly it is enforced between rich and poor, or even between rich and anyone else, there’s a safety issue. Someone with this problem needs to be locked up and not released until there’s some reason to believe he no longer poses a threat to children. Oh, sure, it’s nice to insist on treatment, but what’s to stop him from molesting more children while he’s under treatment if he’s free? Nothing.
And what is this sentence? Here’s more detail:
Jurden also ordered Richards to “participate in a sex offenders” treatment program after his lawyer provided her with an evaluation from a clinic in Massachusetts. Her order stipulated that he undergo inpatient treatment followed by outpatient treatment. The judge also ordered him to have no contact with children under 16 and prohibited him from possessing pornography.
But of course who’s going to check? Why let him go free while in treatment? Why not lock him up? What if he’s never cured? He is a danger to children, but therapy and a promise not to go near children is enough? No. Lock him up during treatment, and let him make promises after he completes it and is evaluated. Isn’t that how a non-rich offender would be treated? Look, I get that this guy probably suffers from “affluenza”, it’s just that I don’t think that’s an excuse to avoid prison.
It appears the only thing the judge is worried about is how this super rich guy will fare in prison. So, for caring more about him than for the victim, and for all future victims, Judge Jan Jurden is the Asshole of the Day.
It is Judge Jan Jurden’s firs time as Asshole of the Day, but not the first judge to be featured on the site. Previous judge winners were
Montana Judge Todd Baugh, who gutted a sentence for a statutory rapist saying the girl “looked much older” even though the rapist was her teacher who knew her age
Texas Judge Jean Boyd, who let the rich kid off after killing four people because his lawyer said he suffered from “affluenza”
Nevada Judge Brent Adams, who reduced a child molester’s sentence from life to one year after the fact
