(Updated below)

Fifty-four-year-old Stacey Dean Rambold, a former high school teacher in Montana, was sentenced to 30 days in prison for raping 14-year-old Cherice Morales. That’s right, just 30 days.

Auliea Hanlon, the victim’s mother, testified that the abuse her daughter suffered at the hands of Rambold was a “major factor” in her suicide. Morales killed herself in 2010, just weeks before her 17th birthday.

But Yellowstone County Judge G. Todd Baugh didn’t see it that way. He sentenced Rambold to 15 years in prison but suspended almost the entire sentence, reasoning that Morales, while troubled, “was older than her chronological age” and was “as much in control of the situation” as Rambold.

While the sentence was handed down, Hanlon repeatedly screamed, “You people suck!” I only wish I could have been there to shout with her.

A couple of media reports mention an ongoing sexual relationship between  Rambold and Morales. But if this was statutory rape, we are talking about a minor who legally could not give consent even if she wanted to.

What’s even worse is this isn’t the first time Rambold was let off easy. This case goes all the way back to 2008, when Rambold was initially charged with three counts of “sexual intercourse without consent.” The Billings Gazette reports: 

While the case was pending, and a few weeks before her 17th birthday, Morales took her own life.

The girl’s death caused problems for the prosecution, and in July 2010 Rambold entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office.

The agreement called for prosecutors to put the case on hold for three years. The charges would be dismissed, the agreement stated, if Rambold completed a sex offender treatment program and complied with other conditions.

A “sex offender treatment program”? Seriously? This guy isn’t an alcoholic who needs AA, he’s a rapist who needs to be held accountable not only for justice for Morales, but also to stop him from raping again. Especially given his history of inappropriate contact with students.

“In 2004, Senior High principal Scott Anderson met with Rambold to discuss allegations that he touched a girls thigh and waist, and was told to keep ‘his hands off all students’,” reported KTVQ in 2008. “The court affidavit says Anderson warned Rambold, ‘anything further would result in a formal investigation and a copy in his personnel file.'”

Needless to say, the sex offender course didn’t work out:

The case was revived last December, when prosecutors learned that Rambold had been terminated from the sex offender treatment program.

On Monday, the treatment provider, Michael Sullivan, testified that Rambold was terminated from the program last November after completing two of the three treatment phases.

Problems arose last August, Sullivan said, when Rambold began missing meetings. After meeting with Rambold, Sullivan said, the man appeared to be back on track with his treatment.

But he was terminated from the program in November, when it was learned that he had been having unsupervised visits with minors and had not informed his counselors that he had been having sexual relations with a woman.

The violations were serious enough when taken together to kick Rambold out of the program, although it was learned that the minors Rambold was visiting were family members.

Rambold’s attorney, Jay Lansing, argued Monday for the suspended sentence. He said Rambold lost his career, his marriage and his home and has suffered a “scarlet letter of the Internet” as a result of publicity about the case.

Looks like the judge agreed that Rambold’s personal life falling apart was punishment enough for destroying a girl’s life, a girl the judge feels was equally responsible for her own sexual abuse at the hands of a grown man. Looks like “rape culture” wins again.

UPDATE 1:

JakPen, who commented below, has started a petition to have Yellowstone District Judge G. Todd Baugh removed from the bench, arguing, “Teachers need to know that they cannot use their position of power and influence to target the students that they are entrusted with. Judges need to know that they are responsible to public safety and not as an enabler of predators!”  You can sign here.

UPDATE 2: 

Judge G. Todd Baugh has apologized for saying 14-year-old Morales was more mature than her age let on and that she had an equal amount of control over the situation as the teacher who raped her.

Baugh said Wednesday morning he regrets the statements he made during the court hearing. He also submitted a letter to the editor for publication in The Gazette, stating he is “not sure just what I was attempting to say, but it did not come out correct.”

“What I said is demeaning of all women, not what I believe and irrelevant to the sentencing,” Baugh said in the letter. “My apologies to all my fellow citizens.”

Baugh said he plans to write an addendum to the court file this week explaining his reasons for the sentence he imposed more thoroughly.

Still, Baugh stands by the 30-day sentence handed down to former teacher and rapist, Stacey Dean Rambold. So, while his apology is appreciated, the problem hasn’t actually been resolved.

To those of you who signed petitions and planned protests, this judge apologized because of you, proving that collective action can make a difference. Remember that going forward.