XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.states.montana, alt.politics.liberalism   
   XPost: alt.abortion, sac.politics   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   As the judge in the Stanford rape case learned, along with the judge in the   
   “affluenza” drunken driving case, the whole world is watching them. A   
   crowd, an angry crowd, can form in a matter of days of people outraged by what   
   they consider a lenient    
   sentence for a heinous crime.   
      
   In the case of Judge John McKeon, as of early morning Wednesday, almost 20,000   
   people had signed a Change.org petition calling for his impeachment for the   
   60-day sentence he gave a Glasgow, Mont., man who pleaded guilty to repeatedly   
   raping his    
   prepubescent daughter.   
      
   “A father repeatedly raped his 12-year old daughter,” Valley County   
   Attorney Dylan Jensen said during an Oct. 4 sentencing hearing.   
      
   “It’s time to start punishing the judges who let these monsters walk our   
   streets,” read the petition.   
      
   Prosecutors had recommended a mandatory 25-year sentence, 100 years with 75   
   suspended, which is what state law calls for.   
      
   Instead, though, Judge McKeon handed down a far lighter sentence: a 30-year   
   suspended prison sentence, which means the man will only serve it if he fails   
   to meet the conditions of his probation.   
      
   Judge admits his decision in domestic-abuse case had ‘the most tragic result   
   possible’   
      
   Among those conditions, which McKeon called “quite rigorous,” was the   
   requirement for the man to register as a sex offender, the Glasgow Courier   
   reported. He also cannot access pornography and has limited access to the   
   Internet.   
      
   In addition, the man will serve 60 days in jail, but McKeon gave him credit   
   for the 17 days he already served, meaning he’ll only spend another 43 days   
   in jail.   
      
   The Washington Post is not identifying the convicted man as it could expose   
   the identity of his victim.   
      
   In most of these controversial cases, the judges under siege tend to remain   
   silent. What makes McKeon’s case unusual is that he has chosen to defend   
   himself in public.   
      
   In an email to the Associated Press, McKeon said he had several reasons for   
   handing down the seemingly light sentence.   
      
   The judge claimed that news coverage obscured state law by failing to mention   
   an exception to the mandatory 25-year prison sentence. According to McKeon,   
   the law allows those arrested for incest involving someone under 12 years old   
   to avoid prison if a    
   psychosexual evaluation finds that psychiatric treatment “affords a better   
   opportunity for rehabilitation of the offender and for the ultimate protection   
   of the victim and society.”   
      
   The judge wrote this is one of Montana’s attempts “to encourage and   
   provide opportunities for an offender’s self-improvement, rehabilitation and   
   reintegration back into a community.”   
      
   Law professor: Judge should be recalled for his role in the Stanford sexual   
   assault case   
      
   In the note to the AP, McKeon also referenced letters written to him by the   
   victim’s mother and grandmother. Both letters requested the convicted man   
   not be sentenced to prison.   
      
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   The victim’s mother, who walked in on the man sexually abusing her daughter,   
   wrote that the man’s two sons love him and she wanted his “children have   
   an opportunity to heal the relationship with their father,” according to   
   McKeon.   
      
   The victim’s grandmother echoed this, calling the man’s behavior   
   “horrible” but stating that the man’s children, “especially his sons,   
   will be devastated if their Dad is no longer part of their lives.”   
      
      
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