{"id":6296,"date":"2015-04-23T16:51:34","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T22:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=6296"},"modified":"2015-04-26T07:41:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-26T13:41:21","slug":"ex-judge-censured-over-rape-comments-to-receive-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/04\/ex-judge-censured-over-rape-comments-to-receive-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-judge, censured over rape comments, to receive award"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Baugh\"<\/a>

Photo courtesy of KTVQ<\/p>

Judge G. Todd Baugh served 30 years on the Yellowstone County bench before retiring in December.<\/p><\/div>\n

Next month, less than a year after he was censured by the Montana Supreme Court for comments he made while sentencing a man who raped a 14-year-old girl, retired District Judge G. Todd Baugh will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Yellowstone Area Bar Association.<\/p>\n

Marian Bradley, president of the Montana chapter of the National Organization for Women, said there is \u201csomething absolutely wrong\u201d with members of the local bar giving Baugh the award.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo they not have respect for the women and children of this community?\u201d she said. \u201cThis is outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jessica Fehr, president of the local bar, responded to a request for comment with a terse email, saying: \u201cAt this point, the YABA Board has no comment and stands by its decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked again to comment, she did elaborate a bit, saying that the lifetime achievement award is given annually, and that nominations for the award are made by the general membership to the YABA executive board, which then votes on nominations. She did not say who specifically nominated Baugh.<\/p>\n

Asked if any members of the local bar raised concerns about giving the award to Baugh, she responded, \u201cTo date, I have not received any correspondence from a YABA member commenting on the award.\u201d<\/p>\n

News of the award went out to bar members in the association\u2019s April newsletter. It said Baugh would receive the award at the association\u2019s annual dinner on May 29 at the Yellowstone Art Museum. Baugh could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

District Judge Russell Fagg, one of Baugh\u2019s longtime colleagues on the Yellowstone County bench, said he thinks most members of the local bar would agree with him that Baugh deserves the award.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a wonderful career,\u201d Fagg said. \u201cHe made a mistake, and I think the bar understands you can\u2019t judge a career by one mistake. Overall, he was a kind, thoughtful, caring person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Baugh was censured by the state high court last July for his comments during the 2013 sentencing of Stacey Dean Rambold, who was a 47-year-old business teacher at Billings Senior High when he raped Cherice Moralez, a student of his, in 2007. Just before her 17th birthday in 2010, while charges against Rambold were still pending, Moralez committed suicide. Rambold later pleaded guilty in the case.<\/p>\n

Baugh was vilified across the country after he sentenced Rambold to 15 years in prison with all but 31 days suspended. During the sentencing, he said the 14-year-old victim was \u201colder than her chronological age\u201d and \u201cas much in control of the situation\u201d as her abuser.<\/p>\n

After his remarks went viral and sparked public protests in Billings and other cities, Baugh apologized for his comments and acknowledged that his lenient sentence in the case violated state law. He tried to modify the sentence retroactively, but the state Supreme Court ruled that he could not revise a sentence he\u2019d already handed down.<\/p>\n

After the Supreme Court overturned Baugh\u2019s sentence, another district judge sentenced Rambold to 15 years in prison with five years suspended. Baugh, who had earlier said he intended to seek another six-year term on the bench, retired in December 2014, having served 30 years as a judge.<\/p>\n

When Baugh was censured by the Supreme Court last July, Chief Justice Mike McGrath said Baugh\u2019s \u201ccomments in open court in this case disregarded longstanding Montana law that a person under the age of 16 is legally incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGrath also said Baugh\u2019s attempts to change his sentence was contrary to state law and that statements he made trying to justify his earlier comments were inappropriate.<\/p>\n

Through all those actions, McGrath said, Baugh \u201chas eroded public confidence in the judiciary and created an appearance of impropriety, therefore violating the Montana Code of Judicial Conduct. He has caused Montana citizens, as well as others, to question the fairness of our justice system and whether prejudice or bias affected the outcome of the Rambold case. There is no place in the Montana judiciary for perpetuating the stereotype that women and girls are responsible for sexual crimes committed against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The public censure marked the first time since 2005 that the Supreme Court had censured a Montana judge.<\/p>\n

Sheena Rice, with the Montana Organizing Project, helped set up a rally on the courthouse lawn in August 2013 to protest Baugh\u2019s remarks and his lenient sentencing of Rambold.<\/p>\n

She said Thursday that she\u2019d heard rumors about the lifetime achievement award, and \u201chonestly, I was a little shocked. This is a judge that the Montana Supreme Court basically said, \u2018you lost the public\u2019s trust.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t seem like someone with that on their resume should get a lifetime achievement award.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley, with the Montana chapter of NOW, said the bar\u2019s decision to salute Baugh \u201cmakes me wonder what attorneys in our community would support the Stacey Rambolds and Judge Baughs of this world \u2026 . I think the bar association maybe needs to rethink who gets their award.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rice, who is also a founding member of Justice4Cherice, which is dedicated to ending victim-blaming language in Montana rape cases, said no decision has been made yet on whether to protest the bar association decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word is still getting out, so we\u2019ll have to wait and see,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fagg, for his part, said, \u201cI\u2019m glad we have the right to protest in this country, but I think those protesters should look at the big picture. And the big picture is his (Baugh\u2019s) lifetime of caring for the victims of crime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next month, less than a year after he was censured by the Montana Supreme Court for comments he made while sentencing a man who raped a 14-year-old girl, retired District Judge G. Todd Baugh will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Yellowstone Area Bar Association. Marian Bradley, president of the Montana chapter of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[2393,2387,2389,2392,2394,294,2390,2391,2388],"class_list":["post-6296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-news","tag-cherice-moralez","tag-g-todd-baugh","tag-jessica-fehr","tag-marian-bradley","tag-mike-mcgrath","tag-montana-supreme-court","tag-russell-fagg","tag-sheena-rice","tag-yellowstone-area-bar-association","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}