The Daily Populous Saturday August 17th, 2024 morning edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by Madison464

It “is the epitome of injustice” as well as “dangerous” for a judge to have given a sentence of 10 weekends in jail to a former upstate New York police officer who pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl before his forced resignation, according to a prominent advocate for child sexual abuse survivors.

“This sentence is the epitome of injustice and a dangerous nod to child sexual predators letting them know, ‘No worries, we won’t go too hard on you,’” Kathryn Robb, the national director of the Children’s Justice Campaign at the Enough Abuse organization, said on Thursday. “This little girl will be imprisoned by her memories for life, while [the rapist] loses a mere 20 days of his liberty.”

Robb, an attorney, has helped state legislatures across the US reform laws addressing child sexual abuse. She added that “rape of a child is one of the most horrendous crimes with lifelong effects on the victim”. And she maintained that the case centering on ex-Rochester, New York, police officer Shawn Jordan was unconscionable for anyone who believed in the ongoing need for stiffer criminal punishments and more substantial civil damages in instances of child molestation.

Jordan, 40, pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and forcible touching in March in connection with allegations that he had molested a girl who was age 13 in 2022 in South Bristol, a community in Ontario county, New York.

It was one of two separate criminal cases filed against Jordan that involved an underage victim. In the other matter, which remained unresolved as of Thursday, authorities in Monroe county, New York, charged him in the spring of 2023 with exposing himself to a 16-year-old girl over a video call.

Under a plea agreement struck in the Ontario county case, state judge Kristina Karle sentenced him on Wednesday to spend 10 weekends in jail as well as 10 years on probation. Karle also ordered Jordan to register as a sex offender and pay fines.

The mother of Jordan’s acknowledged victim implored Karle to send him to prison, saying he had “ruined” her daughter’s life and “doesn’t deserve to be out on the street”, the New York ABC affiliate WHAM reported.

According to Rochester news outlet WROC, Karle approved Jordan’s plea deal after telling him: “I hope you feel shame, I hope you feel remorse, and I hope you never ever hurt another child.”

While the judge reportedly said Jordan’s admitted actions left her with “no words”, she approved his plea agreement.

The president and founder of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (Rainn), Scott Berkowitz, joined Robb in expressing disappointment in the outcome of Jordan’s case in Karle’s courtroom.

“A sentence of 10 years in prison, or more, would make a lot more sense than one of 10 weekends,” Berkowitz said. “He’ll be out in a few months, while she will be dealing with the consequences of his crime for many years to come.

The local assistant district attorney Kelly Wolford told WHAM, the New York NBC affiliate WHEC and other outlets that she was “not entirely satisfied with the sentence” given to Jordan. But, despite the brief corresponding punishment for him, Wolford said her office proceeded with Jordan’s plea agreement after considering “the impact of actually having to testify on the victim of this crime”.

“She’s a child, and she was going to have to face her accuser in the courtroom,” Wolford said.

She added: “When I was given the opportunity to consider whether or not we’d take a guilty plea – absolutely, all day, in a circumstance like this.”

Jordan rushed to his car without answering any questions after his sentencing, according to WHEC.

A spokesperson for prosecutors in Monroe county – which includes Rochester – told WHEC that Jordan did not have a court date for his pending case there. That case was the one that triggered a suspension and his subsequent resignation from the Rochester police department.

despitegirls on August 16th, 2024 at 16:22 UTC »

This article goes a little more into why the sentence was so light:

> But Ritts says both his prosecutor on the case, Kelly Wolford, and the judge, Kristina Karle, did what they could, adding the judge gave him the max under the plea agreement.

> Karle could have rejected the agreement, he says, but she knew Jordan would never accept another that included prison time.

> “Child sex offenders in prison and police officers in prison would compound those things and he knew exactly what he was facing if prison was in the works,” Ritts said.

> Ritts says they were forced to negotiate because the case largely relied on the story of a child and that story did not come out until well after the crime.

> “When you have a delayed disclosure that impacts on the ability to obtain forensic evidence, for there to be medical evidence, for any of those things that happened and so they don’t exist and we know that they don’t exist because time passes and bodies heal and so what we’re ending up with is a case that relies on a child going into court to talk about a sensitive subject in front of their accuser and the re-victimization of a child is always one of things we have to consider,” Ritts said.

Also...

> Jordan is also accused of sexting with a minor in Monroe County and that case will likely resume now that the Ontario case is over, though Ritts does not expect that to produce a particularly large punishment.

Fuck this piece of trash.

peter095837 on August 16th, 2024 at 16:15 UTC »

The justice system seriously needs a lot of fixing...

son_of_Khaos on August 16th, 2024 at 16:10 UTC »

Fucking hell. They aren't even pretending that justice is blind anymore ehh.