A petition has been created to remove a Texas judge after he accepted a plea deal that involved no jail time in a rape case. And both he and the defendant went to Baylor University, which also caused outrage.
On Monday Judge Ralph Strother accepted a plea deal for Jacob W. Anderson, who in 2016 was accused of violently raping a woman at a frat party. The victim was 19 years old at the time and is now referred to as Donna Doe.
The Assistant District Attorney in the case, Hilary LaBorde, is also named in the petition for creating the deal and advising Doe to take it.
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In the plea deal, Anderson will serve three years probation, have to undergo alcohol and substance abuse counseling and pay a $400 fine, which Sarah Byers, who created the petition, said is another example of race and class affecting justice.
“In a functioning democracy, the appropriate arena for this case is a trial, and the appropriate verdict makers are a jury of peers,” she wrote in an email to the Star-Telegram. “Instead, Judge Strother subjugated democracy and offered a sweetheart deal to another caucasian male. The effect of this is chilling to all women who wish to report sex crimes against them and ultimately choose not to.”
Doe’s family said they were given the plea deal with not much time to think it over, and LaBorde advised them to go with it because she tried a similar rape case, which was unsuccessful.
“The idea that the outcome of a separate case should inform LaBorde’s approach to this one is a defeatist attitude that has no place in 2018, let alone 2019,” wrote Byers. “The culture of victim blaming and posture of automatic disbelief of a victim’s accusations is assisted by LaBorde’s complicity.”
Jana Lynne Sanchez, a Democrat who recently lost a Congress bid, also blasted Strothers, as well as LaBorde and explained why so many women are angered. At this time, the petition has over 35,000 signatures with a goal of 100,000.
“Many women are furious and have been furious following the election of an admitted sexual predator to the highest office in the land over a vastly more qualified woman,” said Sanchez. “Then the appointment of Justice Kavanaugh over serious objections of millions of women served to highlight the absence of representation for women in our political system.”
