Prominent advocate for child abuse survivors said sentence for former New York officer Shawn Jordan is ‘dangerous’

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.

  • kevindqc@lemmy.world
    50·
    3 months ago

    Ritts says he understands why people are upset Jordan will spend fewer than a dozen weekends in jail calling it a “generous” sentencing.

    “I’m disappointed, truly, that Shawn Jordan did not get the sentence that he deserved,” Ritts said.

    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.

    Then don’t give him any plea deal? Wtf

    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.

    DA: hey child rapists, pro tip - threaten your victims so they don’t report your rape immediately!

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      20·
      3 months ago

      DA: hey child rapists, pro tip - threaten your victims so they don’t report your rape immediately!

      That was pretty much my take, too.

      Disgusting.

    • craigers@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 months ago

      So even tho it’s bullshit sentence I took away 2 things: 1) getting a guilty plea deal outweighed the risk of no conviction in this case, which leads to 2) he has another pending trial for a different case, and now we have established a guilty pattern of behavior. So hopefully they throw the book at him for that one and send him to prison where he will meet a lot of nice people that like him a lot…