Author Topic: Ex-Baylor frat leader accused of rape wins plea deal with no jail time  (Read 650 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Waco Trib By TOMMY WITHERSPOON 12/10/2018

A former Baylor University fraternity president accused of rape will serve no jail time after a Waco district judge Monday accepted a plea bargain that has ignited a public furor.

In a packed courtroom, 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother accepted a deal prosecutors offered to Jacob Walter Anderson in October, allowing him to plead no contest to the third-degree felony charge of unlawful restraint, and receive deferred probation. Under the deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss four counts of sexual assault against Anderson, who is no longer a Baylor student, and he will not have to register as a sex offender. He also agreed to pay a $400 fine and get counseling.

In deferred probation cases, there is no final judgment of guilt if the defendant completes probation.

Before announcing his decision, Strother acknowledged the widespread interest the case has drawn, in the form of social media commentary, courthouse protests and a barrage of emails and phone calls he has received, and said “not much about this case has been normal.” He said in reaching his decision, he had the benefit of an extensive background report compiled by the probation department, as well as briefs filed by attorneys of the victim and the defendant.

Strother said most of the comments he has seen on social media and emails fall into three categories: “not fully informed, misinformed or totally uninformed.”

Anderson, 23, a Garland resident and former president of Baylor’s Phi Delta Theta fraternity, was indicted on charges he sexually assaulted a sophomore at an off-campus fraternity party in February 2016, when she was 19. The charges against him came at a time when Baylor was roiled by a crisis over its handling of sexual assault complaints, a crisis that caused the shakeup of top university leadership.

After the allegations surfaced, Anderson was removed from the fraternity, kicked out of Baylor and the fraternity chapter was suspended.

More: https://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/ex-baylor-frat-leader-accused-of-rape-wins-plea-deal/article_6cea75f6-f89b-570c-93f8-5586dc1e27aa.html

Offline Elderberry

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Re: Ex-Baylor frat leader accused of rape wins plea deal with no jail time
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2018, 02:59:56 pm »
 Anderson attorneys hit back after criticism of plea deal

    By TOMMY WITHERSPOON twitherspoon@wacotrib.com 12/11/2018

https://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/anderson-attorneys-hit-back-after-criticism-of-plea-deal/article_38c06f31-f416-5628-ad94-a83bf4a2b291.html

Quote
Attorneys for former Baylor University fraternity president Jacob Anderson came out swinging Tuesday in response to an uproar over Anderson’s plea bargain, as supporters of his accuser threw barbs at the judge and prosecutor and started a new petition to remove Anderson from a Dallas college a week before he graduates.

Anderson, 23, was placed on deferred probation for three years Monday after 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother approved a plea agreement in which prosecutors dropped four counts of sexual assault and reduced the charge to felony unlawful restraint in exchange for Anderson’s no-contest plea. He will serve no jail time and won’t be required to register as a sex offender.

Strother, a former hard-nosed prosecutor known for his law-and-order conservatism, accepted the plea bargain Monday in spite of the victim’s impassioned pleas that he reject it so she could have her day in court. She angrily recounted, often in graphic detail, her claims that Anderson raped her, choked her and left her unconscious at an off-campus fraternity party in 2016.

The resolution of Anderson’s case this week made national headlines and was featured on news programs across the country. Social media and news websites were flooded with critical comments about the judge and prosecutor Hilary LaBorde, who handled Anderson’s case.

Strother was inundated with emails and phone calls from all over the country from people urging him to reject the plea bargain. The judge said Tuesday afternoon that he instructed his staff to stop answering the phone because of the volume of negative calls to his office.

Online petition

Kelsey Casto, a 31-year-old senior at the University of Texas at Dallas, said she learned Anderson is attending the same college by reading the Tribune-Herald account of the sentencing hearing. By 5 a.m., she had posted a petition on MoveOn.org that asks university officials to ban Anderson from campus. Anderson, who works for a Dallas real estate development company, is slated to graduate next week with a finance degree.

He was kicked out of Baylor after the sexual assault allegations and the Baylor Phi Delta Theta fraternity was suspended.

Casto’s petition, which had garnered more than 1,500 signatures within 12 hours, says, in part: “The students at UT Dallas have a right to protection from predators like Anderson. He submitted a plea of no contest and was sentenced to deferred probation, and will not be made to register as a sex offender. That being the case, the school has a responsibility to remove him from this new potential hunting ground.”