An Illinois judge who fired after overturning a man’s sexual assault conviction was excluded from the criminal case.
Last year, Adams County Judge Robert Adrian discovered 18-year-old Drew Clinton, who convicted a 16-year-old woman of sexual assault.
Mr Clinton faced a minimum of four years in prison, but this month Judge Adrian said Clinton’s 148 days in prison were “sufficient punishment.”
Judges have been assigned to civil proceedings, the Heraldwig newspaper said.
Judge Adrian’s reversal during the January trial was immediately repulsed by defenders of survivors of sexual assault and a 16-year-old girl who reported the assault.
“He made me look like I fought for what, and I put my words out there for no reason,” the girl told the local station WGEM-TV. .. “I had to leave the courtroom and go to the bathroom right away. I was crying.”
According to court documents, the teenager reported that Mr. Clinton had sexually assaulted her after being drunk at a party on May 30. At trial, she testified to be unconscious, woke up to a pillow covering her face, and Mr Clinton assaulted her.
On October 15, Clinton was convicted of one of three counts of digitally invading a 16-year-old child without consent. The indictment was sentenced to a minimum of four years in prison.
But in January of this year, Judge Adrian said the minimum sentence was “not just.”
“There is no way this teenager should go to the corrections bureau, what happened in this case,” he said, according to court records posted online by local media. “I’m not going to.”
He reverted the conviction to acquittal, stating that the court “found that the people could not prove their allegations” in one indictment.
The judge also said that Mr. Clinton had just turned 18 before the incident and had no criminal record, and criticized his parents for providing alcohol to the party’s people.
“This is what happens,” he said.
Clinton’s lawyer, Andrew Schnack, told The New York Times that compulsory decisions deprive judges of their discretion and that decisions should be judged individually. He did not return the BBC’s request for comment.
Mr Schnack also told the newspaper that compulsory judgments deprived judges of their discretion and that judgments should be judged individually. He did not return the BBC’s request for comment.
The Quincy Area Network for Domestic Violence assists victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence, called Judge Adrian’s Reversal, and “sends a chilling message to other rape victims.”
“One message is clear. If raped, avoid Judge Adrian’s court.”
An executive order filed by the Supreme Court Justice of the Eighth Judicial Circuit on Thursday immediately reassigned him to small claims, prosecution docks and other civil affairs.