Judge who spared teen rape suspect from ‘good family’ quits amid fury
The boy filmed the attack and sent it to friends, reportedly writing: 'When your first time having sex was rape.'
A judge who showed leniency toward a teen charged with rape because he was from a ‘good family’ has stepped down amid widespread condemnation.
New Jersey’s Supreme Court terminated the temporary assignment for Judge James Troiano, who declined to order 16-year-old rape suspect be tried as an adult because of the boy’s privileged background.
Troiano, who had been retired before he was brought back to serve in Monmouth County, New Jersey, requested that the high court allow him to step down.
The judge’s decision to allow the teen, identified in court as GMC, to be tried as a minor was overturned by the New Jersey Appellate Division, which wrote that Troiano overstepped his authority when me made ‘an independent assessment of the juvenile’s culpability.’
During the trial last month, Troiano wrote that teen, who was a boy scout charged with raping a girl at a house party and 2017, ‘comes from a good family who put him in an excellent school where he was doing extremely well.’
Troiano said that he believes there was a distinction between sexual assault and rape. He continued to classify rape as ‘generally two or more…males involved, either at gunpoint or weapon,’ according to ABC News.
The teen reportedly filmed himself raping the ‘visibly intoxicated, physically helpless’ girl identified only as ‘Mary’ who was ‘unable to provide consent,’ according to the juvenile complaint.
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‘GMC filmed himself penetrating Mary from behind on his cellphone, displaying her bare torso, and her head hanging down. He forwarded the clip to several friends,’ court papers alleged.
The teen reportedly sent the video to friends with a text message that read: ‘When your first time having sex was rape.’
After the victim learned about the video, she confronted GMC who denied that he recorded the attack.