Outrage spread when Montana Judge G. Todd Baugh gave a teacher a 30-day jail sentence for raping a 14-year-old student. But the comments the judge made about the victim—who committed suicide at 17 while the conviction was pending—stirred up even more controversy.

Girls are sexualized from a young age, yet blamed when they attract attention from adults who can't control themselves. (bthomas-dejongh, Creative Commons)

Claiming in court that the girl “seemed older than her chronological age” and was “in control of the situation,” Baugh neglected to take a simple law into account in his sentencing of 54-year-old Stacey Rambold. When it comes to minors, age is not just a number—it’s the difference between pedophilia and legal consent, which Baugh failed to observe.

The laws that state the age of consent become meaningless when they are blatantly ignored and child sex offenders are given lesser sentences. Not only did Baugh make an illegal decision by sentencing Rambold less than the required minimum—which, per the Montana Supreme Court, he is not allowed to reverse until the trial goes through the appeals process—but he made a subjective one, as well. 

In what way could the victim, Cherice Morales, have been older than her chronological age? The very idea has many unsettling implications, not the least of which is that her sexual development may have instigated the inappropriate relationship. By Baugh’s logic, Morales’ possibly more mature appearance could in some way have been the cause of her rape, making Rambold deserving of a lesser sentence.

The comment by Baugh reinforces the damaging and contradictory reality that girls are sexualized from a young age, yet blamed if they attract attention from adults who can't control themselves. Similar instances of victim blaming surfaced in other trials this year, including one in which a U.K. judge referred to a 13-year-old rape victim as a “sexual predator,” as though a 13-year-old could have possibly had the upper hand.

The U.K. judge’s disturbing depiction of a child is all too similar to Baugh’s statement that Morales was “in control of the situation.” Though Baugh took back this statement, admitting in a public apology that the victim was “obviously” unable to consent, he followed up by saying that “it wasn’t this forcible beat-up rape.” 

This defensive “apology” sounds a lot like Representative Todd Akin’s infamous “legitimate rape” comments.

That the lines between age and ability to consent are apparently so blurred for Baugh is cause for serious consideration of whether or not he should remain on the bench. Emotional arguments aside, Morales’ family, their prosecutors and the state are still left with a judge who not only disregarded the age of consent but then issued an illegal and not immediately reversible sentence. Only when Judge Baugh steps down and Rambold is given an appropriate sentence will true justice be served.