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.”
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.
In July 2017, Dontrell Lee Hullett pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a Baylor student. Though the plea agreement he’d worked out with prosecutors called for him to serve multi-year prison terms, Strother promised to consider deferred adjudication probation, just as he would later for Anderson. In October, Strother made good on his promise, sentencing Hullett to probation and to pay for his victim’s counseling only.
This past June, after a jury convicted Adrian Andres Ramos of raping a Baylor student, Strother gave him just five years’ probation and 30 days in county jail. Ramos was given the option to serve his jail time on weekends so as not to interfere with his studies. No consideration appears to have been given to the difficulties the survivors of these assaults have experienced and will continue to grapple with.
The prosecutor’s office and judge are rape culture stalwarts. In Anderson’s case, ADA LaBorde justified the plea deal by arguing it would be difficult to get a conviction based on her beliefs about the jury pool. That’s not how prosecutors are supposed to work.
This pattern of injustices perpetrated against survivors of sexual assault in Waco, Texas, has now drawn national attention. Outrage is growing, not receding, even as district attorney Abel Reyna continues trying to defend the agreement. More than 85,000 people have signed a petition protesting Anderson’s sentence. Many advocate flooding the judge’s chambers and district attorney’s office with letters and calls to protest these weak sentences for offenders.
Public outrage is the one thing that could end this pattern of leniency for assailants in Waco, Texas. I’m not usually a fan of judicial elections, but in this case I don’t mind that Strother’s just as vulnerable to being voted out as Reyna.
I’ll just leave those phone numbers right there for you.