Your 7.3.19 Playpen

Evidently there’s some kind of contest in New Jersey to determine which trial judge is the most boorish.  This year features two strong contenders.  Number one:

On July 30, 2018, Judge Troiano denied the waiver to try the teenager as an adult, arguing that prosecutors had abused their discretion.

Judge Troiano said there was a “distinction” between “a sexual assault and a rape.”

He said “the traditional case of rape” generally involved two or more males using a gun or weapon to corner a victim into an abandoned house, shed or shack, “and just simply taking advantage of the person as well as beating the person, threatening the person.”

It was under those egregious circumstances, he said, that the state would try a juvenile in adult court.

He delved into the facts of the case, questioning “whether or not this young lady was intoxicated to the point that she didn’t understand what was going on.”

He said the boy’s actions were not sophisticated or predatory, and dismissed G.M.C.’s text messages as “just a 16-year-old kid saying stupid crap to his friends.”

That’s strong, but number two is succinct.

In the other case, the appellate division reversed another judge’s decision not to try a 16-year-old boy as an adult after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 2017.

The second family court judge, Marcia Silva, sitting in Middlesex County, denied a motion to try the teenager as an adult and said that “beyond losing her virginity, the State did not claim that the victim suffered any further injuries, either physical, mental or emotional.”

Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?  She was twelve years old.  (The criminal defendant claimed he broke up with the victim because she was “too little”.)

Judge Silva is female, so at least it’s a relief to know we shouldn’t chalk things up to gender bias.  Clueless stupidity, on the other hand…

Have at it in the comments.  (I should probably start a drinking game on the Betsy Ross flag, but I don’t have the energy.)