No prison time for man convicted of assaulting mentally disabled teen ("locker room roughhousing")

[Miles Archer]

TWIN FALLS – A 19-year-old charged with kicking a coat hanger into the rectum of a mentally disabled teenager in the Dietrich High School locker room will not spend any time behind bars, a judge ruled Friday.

Instead, John R.K Howard of Keller, Texas, was ordered to spend three years on probation and complete 300 hours of community service. Because the judge handed down a withheld judgment, he will be allowed to petition to have the felony conviction scrubbed from his record.

“His punishment is the slap on the hand for him, a slap in the face for [victim] and to our family,” Shelly McDaniel said. “(Victim) had the courage to come forward thinking that if he did, something good would come from this ugly thing, that someone else wouldn’t have to suffer the same humiliation and pain that he has suffered and continues to suffer. Every time a verdict comes down for one of these men or boys, he becomes more and more disappointed that the legal system failed him.”

The lawyer described the assault with the hanger as the result of locker room roughhousing, not a hate-driven sexual attack. The victim’s family got up and left the courtroom a few minutes after Calbo began to speak.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/crime/no-prison-time-for-man-convicted-of-assaulting-mentally-disabled-teen/414803899

[ck4829]

1. I always thought roughhousing was like giving someone a noogie

That's a very, very disturbing take on it to say the least.

[Docreed2003]

2. Sickening....

The judge acknowledged that other players on the team called the victim “grape soda,” “watermelon” and “fried chicken,” but opined that those nicknames were because the victim liked those foods, not because he is black.

When you start with the judge deciding these derogatory terms aren't racist, I suppose you shouldn't be surprised that kicking a coat hanger into a boys rectum isn't viewed as assault, but horse play. This is sickening. I can't imagine what the victim and family must be feeling.

[Secret Squirrel]

3. That is disgusting

The story is very incomplete because I fail to see how you could kick a coat hanger into another person's rectum if the person was not held down and the coat hanger placed there to be kicked in. If that was the case it is assault and battery and could also be considered a sex crime also more people should have been charged. Any more information on this story because I am very confused?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

4. So if someone shoved that gavel up that shit kicker judge's ass. It wouldn't

be a crime either? Got it.

[bullwinkle428]

5. Why do these assholes always go back to the "locker room" excuse?

[Mendocino]

8. Yes, the boys will be boys

defense. Chances are the judge use to be one of boys that think this kind of sick behavior is okey dokey.

[WinkyDink]

6. Sick perp, sicker judge.

[Paladin]

7. And the punishment would be the same if the assault was done by a black kid?

Yeah, sure. Just the same.

[cvoogt]

9. locker room 'free speech zone'

.. (almost) anything goes within the zone.. but ONLY within the zone!