If you’ve this blog for any amount of time, you know I have a serious problem with anyone who coddles or enables child molesters. That includes prosecuters who won’t prosecute the molestors, or enable them with plea bargains.
So it was with a great deal of interest that I saw this article in the Gary Post-Tribune:
VALPARAISO — A Portage man who molested or sexually abused three girls when he was about 19 was sentenced Monday to four years in jail, with no time set aside for probation.
Joshua M. Rodriguez, 21, had pleaded guilty in September to felony child molesting, a charge amended from the higher B felony level to C felony. Under the B felony, he would have served at least six years.
Felony charges of criminal deviate conduct and sexual misconduct with a minor were dropped. He could have served up to 16 more years if convicted of those charges.
Rodriguez will serve his time in a therapeutic unit at Westville Correctional Facility in LaPorte.
How nice for him. He gets to plead down from a higher felony and will only do 4 years (when he could have done 22 years!!!) in a therapeutic unit. (Read: “Country Club”). I’ve worked in the Indiana State prison system. Trust me; it’s damned easy time.
Now, read the article of his arrest from the Northwest Indiana Vidette Times:
Man Accused of Sex Crimes Against 3 girls
PORTAGE | A Portage man was charged Friday with one count of child molestation, one count of criminal deviate conduct and two counts of sexual misconduct after three girls told police he engaged in sex acts with them earlier this year.
Joshua Rodriguez, 20, of 3240 Oakwood St., is accused of having sex with a 12-year-old girl whose mother is friends with his mother. He’s also accused of forcibly touching a 15-year-old girl and having sex with another girl and performing a sex act on her.
Two fifteen year old girls and a twelve year old. Having sex with one girl and performing a sex act on the other. Molestation. Criminal Deviate Conduct. Two counts of Sexual Misconduct. But there’s one word there that really sets my alarms off (as if the phrase “Criminal Deviate Conduct with a Twelve year old” didn’t set me off before.)
“Forcibly”.
That means RAPE in any other context. In fact, having sex with a child under the age of sixteen is Statutory Rape normally.
That probably explains why there was no judge’s name on the article. No Prosecutor’s name who accepted the massive plea bargain. No lawyer who finagled the plea bargain. According to Indiana law, Rape is punishable by a 30 year sentence; with up to $10,000 fine. Even the lower Class B Felony is still punishable by Ten Years.
So, no names to attach responsibility to; and a criminal who does less than half of the smallest punishment; and does it in the easiest manner possible.
Yep; sounds like the Porter County Courts System.
~~JD~~
