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Twenty SXTH Day
Twenty SXTH Day
Teen accused of rape deserves leniency because of his 'good family', judge says
Boy, 16, allegedly raped girl while recording incident on phone
New Jersey judge praised suspect’s ‘very high’ academic scores
A judge suggested that a teenage boy accused of raping a drunk girl at a party should be treated leniently because
he came from “a good family”, and cast doubt on whether such an attack amounted to rape at all. Judge James
Troiano in New Jersey made the remarks while ruling that the boy, who was identified only as “GMC”, should
not face trial as an adult for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl while recording the incident on his mobile phone.
“This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely
well,” Troiano said. “He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college. His scores for
college entry were very high.” Troiano, 69, also noted that the boy was an Eagle Scout.
Investigators said GMC sent a clip of the alleged rape to seven of his friends, and later sent a text adding: “When
your first time having sex is rape.” Yet Troiano suggested that, in his view, the alleged incident was a sexual
assault rather than a rape.
Troiano’s remarks, which he delivered at a family court hearing in July 2018, were highlighted this week in
a sharply worded overturning of his decisionby an appeals court. Prosecutors told NJ1015.com they would now
seek an indictment from a grand jury so they may prosecute GMC as an adult.
Prosecutors had alleged that GMC’s attack had been “sophisticated and predatory” and that he showed “calculated
and cruel” behaviour by filming the incident, sharing the footage and then lying about it.
Adult cases are heard by a jury and typically involve harsher punishments for those convicted. Records of
juvenile cases are largely kept secret from the public.
But Troiano refused, pointing to GMC’s background and saying that, in his view, a “traditional case of rape”
involved more than one attacker using a weapon to take advantage of a victim in a remote location.
The judge also cast doubt on allegations GMC’s victim was too drunk to understand what was happening,
asserting that she “walked hand-in-hand” with GMC to a basement area where the alleged rape took place.
And he dismissed the significance of GMC’s boastful text messages, describing this as “just a 16-year-old kid
saying stupid crap to his friends”.
The appeals court panel said Troiano had exceeded his role and “decided the case for himself” rather than
properly reviewing the application by prosecutors to try GMC as an adult.
In one drily scathing passage, the appeals court judges said they hoped juveniles would not be made to stand trial
as adults if they “do not come from good families and do not have good test scores”.
The White House has not said how much the celebration will cost. The Pentagon postponed a military parade
planned for last November after it estimated it could cost $90m. Tom Udall, a Democratic senator, said: “The
American people deserve to know how much of their money the president is spending to turn their July 4th
celebration into a de facto campaign rally.”
In addition, the District of Columbia council has warned of the damage that tanks could do to city streets. It
tweeted on Monday: “We have said it before, and we’ll say it again: Tanks, but no tanks.”
The Democratic congressman Don Beyer, who represents nearby suburbs in Virginia, wrote on Twitter: “The
authoritarian-style trappings he demands, including tanks, will come at a great cost to taxpayers, and threaten
significant harm to local roads and bridges. I am deeply concerned by the suggestion that the president’s
insistence on displaying tanks could subject Arlington Memorial Bridge to strains grossly exceeding its weight
restrictions.”
Beyer added: “If Trump is going to turn this event into another partisan rally to boost his own frail ego, he must
reimburse US taxpayers for any damage he causes.”
Trump will deliver his speech as the 19ft-high marble statue of Lincoln, whose clarion call “to bind up the
nation’s wounds” is carved into the memorial, looks on. He previously spoke there, amid chants of “Make
America great again”, at a pre-inauguration concert in January 2017.
White House officials insist that he will avoid partisan politics and stick to patriotic themes in his speech, but
opponents fear he will use the elevated, taxpayer-funded platform to lambast Democrats ahead of next year’s
presidential election. Spokeswoman Hogan Gidley told Fox Business Network on Tuesday: “That’s absolutely
ridiculous. This is all about a salute to America. The president is not going to get political.”