Author Topic: PETITION FOR JUDGE RALPH STROTHER TO RESIGN REACHES OVER 18,000 in two days.  (Read 822 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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lakewacotriplemurder.blog Posted on December 13, 2018 by harrystorm

https://lakewacotriplemurder.blog/2018/12/13/strother-sucks-petition-hits-18000/

Thousands have signed a petition calling for the judge in an ex-Baylor frat president’s rape case to resign or be removed from office after he accepted a plea deal that involved no jail time.

On Monday, Judge Ralph Strother accepted the plea agreement for Jacob W. Anderson, a former Baylor student who was accused of raping a woman referred to as Donna Doe in 2016. As part of the deal, Anderson agreed to plea to a lesser charge of unlawful restraint and will not have to register as a sex offender.

Strother and Assistant District Attorney Hilary LaBorde, who prosecuted the case, were not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon.

The petition, titled “Request the Resignation of Judge Ralph Strother,” had more than 18,000 signatures on the Care2 Petitions website early Thursday afternoon. The petition attacks both Strother and LaBorde, who agreed to the plea deal .

Donna Doe’s family said LaBorde blindsided them with the plea deal after reassuring them that Anderson would be convicted. In emails between LaBorde and Doe’s family, LaBorde said she thought a plea deal would be best because she had just tried a rape case similar to Doe’s in which the accused rapist was not convicted.

Some of the reasons listed in the petition for Strother’s removal were:

    “The sixth amendment guaranteeing the right to a speedy and public trial was not honored.
    A system created by wealthy white men protects wealthy white men.
    When judges on benches see themselves reflected in the face of a perpetrator and recuse him of all responsibility, they will not feel a modicum of remorse due to their privilege of race and class.
    A prior case lost by LaBorde is not a reasonable basis for LaBorde’s lack of attempt to bring this one to trial.
    LaBorde’s unwillingness to allow Mary her day in court betrays fundamental basic human rights and perpetuates a climate in which future victims will continue to report sex crimes at an alarmingly low rate.”

Strother told KWKT he has also received death threats via email in response to the plea deal.

After the plea deal was accepted Monday, LaBorde issued a statement in defense of the deal.

“Given the claims made publicly, I understand why people are upset,” she wrote. “However, all of the facts must be considered and there are many facts that the public does not have. In approving this agreement, Judge Strother had access to all the statements that have ever been made by all people involved and agreed that the plea agreement offered was appropriate in this case.”

Strother, the 19th State District Judge in McLennan County, ran unopposed in the GOP primary in 2016, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald. Archived news articles from The Baylor Lariat, the university’s newspaper, state that Strother was appointed to the post in 1999 by then Gov. George W. Bush. He served as first assistant district attorney for McLennan County before his appointment.

Strother is listed as a prominent alumni by Baylor University.

In 2017, Strother sentenced a man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a Baylor student in 2013 to deferred adjudication probation and ordered him to pay for the woman’s counseling, according to the Waco Tribune.

Earlier this year, Strother allowed a man convicted of sexual assault to serve jail time on the weekends. The man was a former Baylor student and was given 30 days in days, AP reported.

Politicians also voiced their criticism of Strother, such as Jana Lynn Sanchez, a Democrat who recently lost a bid for U.S. Congress.

Offline Elderberry

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CNN hosts left speechless by assault victim’s scathing response to accused Baylor fratboy rapist walking free

Raw Story by Tom Boggioni 12/11/2018

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/cnn-hosts-left-speechless-assault-victims-scathing-response-accused-baylor-frat-boy-rapist-walking-free/

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CNN hosts Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto were momentarily left without words following a Texas reporter divulging more details about the fall-out over a Baylor fraternity president walking away with a slap on the wrist on rape charges.

“I’ll read you a little more of what the victim in this case also went on to say during that court hearing yesterday,” Lavandera began. “This is from our affiliates down there in Waco, saying, quote, ‘If I had the courage to come back to Waco’ — referencing this because apparently the prosecutor and the D.A.. did not appear in the courtroom yesterday — she said, ‘If I had the courage to come back to Waco and face my rapist and testify, you could at least have had enough respect for me to show up’.”

“‘You both will have to live with this decision to let a rapist run free in society without any warning to future victims,’” the CNN correspondent continued reading. “‘I wonder if you will have nightmares every night watching Jacob rape me over and over again.’”

“According to the victim’s attorneys in this case, they basically said that Jacob Anderson had left this victim to die, choking on her own vomit and that’s why this victim was describing this in such emotional terms,” Lavandera added.
More at link.

Offline Elderberry

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Toxic environment causes judge to postpone sexual abuse of child trial

WacoTrib By TOMMY WITHERSPOON 12/15/2018

https://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/toxic-environment-causes-judge-to-postpone-sexual-abuse-of-child/article_1a57fe90-cb54-544b-b0f2-131c3c5c4db8.html

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The toxic cloud swirling around the McLennan County Courthouse in the wake of the Jacob Anderson plea bargain has caused the state district judge who approved the deal to delay a child abuse trial set for Tuesday in his court.

Judge Ralph Strother of Waco’s 19th State District Court and prosecutors involved in the plea arrangement with the former Baylor University fraternity president have been swamped with irate, threatening emails and phone calls since Strother accepted the plea deal and put Anderson on deferred probation for three years.

After discussing the prospects of selecting an impartial jury that would be fair to both sides, Strother and the attorneys agreed it would be better to delay Davis’ trial on two counts of sexual assault of a child and six counts of indecency with a child by contact until the backlash over Anderson’s case subsides.

Baylor Law School associate professor Liz Fraley, president of the local chapter and a national representative of the American Board of Trial Advocates, said Strother’s decision to delay the trial is thoughtful and fair.

More at link above.