One Texas judge has a habit of letting rapists walk, even when they plead guilty
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In 2016, a woman says, Jacob Walter Anderson gagged, raped, and choked her until she lost consciousness. There’s reason to think she was drugged. Anderson was indicted on sexual assault charges. According to the victim and her family, the prosecutor, HilarOne Texas judge has a habit of letting rapists walk, even when they plead guilty
In 2016, a woman says, Jacob Walter Anderson gagged, raped, and choked her until she lost consciousness. There’s reason to think she was drugged. Anderson was indicted on sexual assault charges. According to the victim and her family, the prosecutor, Hilary LaBorde, said the case was “cut and dr[ied]” and promised a conviction. But she then allowed Anderson to plead “no contest,” rather than “guilty,” to mere unlawful restraint. Judge Ralph Strother signed off on that plea agreement. The evidence was strong enough to compel Anderson to accept that plea rather than go to trial; it was strong enough to compel Baylor University to expel Anderson after investigating the assault. Yet Anderson’s plea amounts to nothing more than an admission that there was enough evidence to convict him of that lesser charge. He won’t serve any jail time, won’t be added to the sex offender registry, and is only obligated to pay a $400 fine and seek counseling. If he complies with the terms of his probation, he’ll likely get the conviction removed from his record altogether. This deal went forward despite protests from the woman Anderson allegedly assaulted. She testified, “He stole my body, virginity and power over my body.” x"It must be horrible to be you...to know you are a rapist, to know that you almost killed me, to know that you ruined my life, stole my virginity and stole many other things from me.â - Anderson's unnamed victim read aloud in a court statement https://t.co/EnUtcquYPb— marisa kabas (@MarisaKabas) December 11, 2018 The worst part is, Anderson’s not an outlier—his sentence is part of a pattern. Anderson is the third man accused of sexually assaulting a Baylor student that Strother has permitted to walk away without serious consequence in the past two years. Read more