James Troiano, a Republican New Jersey family court judge, refused to allow a predatory sixteen-year-old rapist to be tried as an adult because he came from “a good family” and was accepted into a good school. Trying minors as adults is questionable practice, but the totality of this case is extraordinary.
A sixteen-year-old boy was charged with raping an intoxicated sixteen-year-old at a party. He filmed it, texted his friends “when your first time having sex was rape.” He continued to share that video that showed her breasts and her head banging against the wall as he raped her for months, ignoring her pleas for him to stop. The prosecutors said this showed him being particularly predatory.
The judge said that it didn’t look like rape because “traditional” rape involves more than one person either at gunpoint or with a weapon. I guess her head banging against the wall was not the kind of “manhandling” the judge thinks rapey.
He added that the boy should not be tried as an adult because of the good family and good school, because he was an Eagle Scout and had good college entry scores. He said the girl and her family should have been told that bringing charges could have a “devastating effect” on his life. Seriously, he told a rape survivor that bringing charges would be mean to the rapist.
His decision was reversed on appeal.
- CNN: A teen was accused of rape, but a judge didn’t want him tried as an adult because he ‘comes from a good family’
- Washington Post: A judge cited a teen’s ‘good family’ in declining to charge him as an adult for rape. Now, he’s resigned.
- Justia: State of New Jersey in the interest of GMC
The Herald-News
Passaic, New Jersey · Friday, July 12, 2019
