A Rare Case of Justice in the People’s Republic ??
I don’t get it. If auto-eroticism is legal, then why is statutory rape a crime ?? What makes sex with a car more morally acceptable than sex with a statue ???
– Unknown
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The judge gives someone who raped a 9 year old (that was in his custody) 27 years which is double the “state guidelines.” BTW who are the “legal experts” who came up with these “state guidelnes” ………. 12 years for raping a child??? In my world, about 27 years would have been the sentencing “floor” for such an act.
Anyone kudos to this judge ……….. but barbs to the original judge who awarded custody of the 9 year old to this guy despite a prior rape conviction “because that crime was 10 years old and probation officials described him as a “success story.”
– Smitty, 3-2-08
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23196734/
27-year sentence for rape of girl, 9
By JIM ADAMS / StarTribune
startribune.com
A Hastings man who raped his ex-girlfriend’s daughter after gaining custody of the 9-year-old got some justice Friday: a 27-year prison sentence.
Justin P. Farnsworth, 34, who had a prior conviction for raping a Carver County teenager, received more than twice the 12-year sentence that state guidelines recommend for first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Dakota County District Judge Robert King found Farnsworth was a predatory offender and declared the crime deplorable and egregious.
Farnsworth apologized in court, his voice cracking at the end, said Monica Jensen, spokeswoman for the county attorney’s office. The victim, who is now 13, was not in court but her mother was.
Farnsworth said he didn’t understand why he had raped the girl and hoped she got the counseling she needed. He also apologized to his family, Jensen said.
Farnsworth’s first victim, assaulted in 1994 and now 27, also was in court for the sentencing, Jensen said.
Farnsworth was charged in November 2004 with raping the girl in his Hastings apartment. He pleaded guilty in April 2005. Later that year, he tried to withdraw his plea, arguing it was coerced. His appeal went to the state Supreme Court, which upheld the guilty plea last September.
During a hearing in January, a prosecutor played a social worker’s videotaped interview with the 9-year-old girl. She told the social worker that Farnsworth had sex with her on many occasions. She said he showed her sex movies and “whooped her” or threatened her when she didn’t comply. Farnsworth said he would kill her if she told, the girl said.
The girl has had extensive counseling but she still finds it difficult to trust men, except her grandfather, her mother testified earlier. She said her daughter still has nightmares.
With credit for time served during his appeal and good behavior in prison, Farnsworth would be eligible for supervised release when he is 49 in November 2022, said County Attorney James Backstrom. But before release, the county attorney’s office will review the case for possible indefinite commitment of Farnsworth as a sexually dangerous person, “which I consider him to be,” Backstrom said.
The 9-year-old had been living with Farnsworth and his two younger daughters for about a year after he broke up with the girls’ mother. The mother, who was living with a friend in western Minnesota, agreed to let her daughters live with Farnsworth, officials said.
Dakota County Judge Joseph Carter granted Farnsworth custody of the 9-year-old girl in October 2004. He knew of Farnsworth’s prior rape conviction but noted that it was 10 years old and that probation officials described him as a “success story.” The judge also relied on a court-appointed custody evaluator who records said recommended that the girl live with Farnsworth, who had a stable home and job, unlike her mother.
Less than a month after Farnsworth won custody, the girl told a neighbor woman that he was molesting her. Police said there was no indication that Farnsworth had molested his own younger daughters.