Judge who said teenager who filmed himself raping girl 'deserves leniency because he's from a good family’ gets death threats
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
U.S.
Judge who said teenager who filmed himself raping girl 'deserves leniency because he's from a good family’ gets death threats
Maya Oppenheim, The Independent Tue, Jul 9 6:42 AM EDT
A New Jersey judge who said a teenage boy accused of rape should get leniency because he came from a “good family” has received threats amid a ferocious backlash against his ruling.
James Troiano denied a request in 2018 for a 16-year-old boy accused of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old girl to be tried as an adult.
The Monmouth County Superior Court Judge said the defendant “comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well.”
The teenage boy was accused of recording himself sexually assaulting the 16-year-old girl and sending the video to friends with the caption “when your first time is rape.”
Mr Troiano’s decision, which surfaced last week, sparked a fierce response and has been viewed as evidence the US legal system is two-tier and has different rules for those who are privileged.
The 69-year-old, who has spent almost three decades on the bench, and his family are now receiving death threats and there have been a number of calls for him to resign, reports the New York Times .
Mr Troiano and his family have received multiple threatening emails and calls, according to a source who spoke to the publication.
One email reportedly told the judge that should be raped by a man “stronger than you”.
A Change.org petition calls for the NJ State Assembly to impeach the judge and a protest is scheduled to take place at Monmouth County Superior Court later this week.
The threats come as politicians and members of the public call for Mr Troiano to be disbarred, including from Democratic presidential hopeful Cory Booker.
The New Jersey senator said: “Not only should this judge no longer serve - as he is clearly incapable of properly fulfilling his duties - but across the country, we must call out bad actors in the system, exposing their biases, and show women and survivors that we will doggedly pursue justice on their behalf".
The teenager is accused of raping a girl, who has been referred to under the alias of Mary in court documents, in a basement during a house party in 2017.
Court documents say Mary was intoxicated, slurring her words and stumbling as she walked into the basement with the teenager. They say she suffered bruising and hand prints from others slapping her on her backside, which she told her mother about the next day.
Court documents say the accused teen allegedly recorded the assault and shared it with friends – adding that the girl's bare torso is exposed and her head is repeatedly banged against a wall in the recording.
Mary and her family chose to press charges months later when the defendant carried on sharing the clip, despite the girl asking him to stop.
Family court proceedings are usually closed to the public but some of Mr Troiano’s remarks - taken from a 65-page transcript of his sealed decision - were revealed when an appeals court decision surfaced.
The Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court reversed Mr Troiano's decision in June - sending the case back down for further judgment.
The judge is an idiot, while family can indeed influence how a kid turns out there's no guarantee and in this case something obviously went wrong. However whoever is sending the threats is also an idiot
If the kid was from a good family- his family would want him to receive proper sentencing, and then work to get him the help his over privileged ass needs.
What is worse it sounds like the girl was willing to let him get away with it until he refused to stop sending to his friends- who I am sure forwarded it on. The kid needs a hard dose of reality.
The judge doesn't deserve death threats, but may it is time for him to retire?
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Or perhaps her family did not want to force her to replay the horror over and over again to the press and in court. I personally would have pushed for my daughter to do everything to lock up the scum, but that was their decision.
From the article.
Sounds like she and her family only chose to press charges when the ass refused to stop sharing the clip. Sorry if you don't like my wording. How about let it slide? Let him off the hook? Enabled his self entitlement?
What about his next victim? There will most definitely be next if he doesn't receive a harsh sentence. He won't learn a damn thing.
And that is what should have been done from the start.
Their decision would have allowed there to be a next victim for this entitled ass. With a lite sentence there still could be another victim in his future.
And thanks to Acosta he did have that opportunity.
I'm trying to find the words to express what I'm thinking right now. The best I can come up with is that I don't think there is a steam-roller heavy enough for Judge James Troiano.
As for the prick from 'a good family', I say put his name out for all to see. Since he was so proud of his performance, he and his family should get all the attention they deserve.
The good news is that the rapist doesn't have to worry about his future. I'm absolutely certain Brett Kavanaugh will have some great advice for him.
The real issue here is that he Judge decided to act as a trier of fact when his ONLY job was to review the involuntary waiver motion by the Prosecution. The state has specific standards that must be met by the Prosecution and the Judge is only there to ensure that the Prosecution meets that standard. They are NOT there to decide the merits of the underlying case.
Here is what this pig of a Judge stated during the waiver hearing:
Oh and if THAT isn't bad enough, here is a FACT stated in the opinion:
So the 'first investigator' got clearance from his sergeant to DESTROY evidence.
At this point it's unclear whether the girls family was aware of the actual content of the video. It's clear that the girl does NOT clearly remember the events. So ya, they wanted the video deleted but the police should NOT have allowed that to happen without securing an evidentiary copy.
Here's the kicker, the pig of a Judge actually said:
What the actual fuck!
Oh and BTW, NJ is looking at another pig Judge doing the same crap.
good questioned I always take a step back on rape cases because many people have been accused when they didnt do anything wrong. But this looks pretty open and shut