Dallas County judge reprimanded for ‘reckless’ remark about 14-year-old rape victim
DALLAS -- The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct has reprimanded a Dallas County judge for saying in an interview that a 14-year-old girl raped at school “wasn’t the victim she claimed to be.”
State District Judge Jeanine Howard’s “reckless” remark about a sexual assault case she presided over “undermined the public’s confidence in her impartiality and independence by defending her rulings in the press, giving rise to a legitimate concern that she would not be fair or impartial in other sexual assault cases,” the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct wrote earlier this month.
Howard’s remark, made in an interview with The Dallas Morning News in May 2014, came after she was publicly criticized for how she handled the case of a teen who forced the girl to have sex inside the practice room at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
Her words about the victim were picked up by media outlets across the globe.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150917-dallas-county-judge-reprimanded-for-reckless-remark-about-14-year-old-rape-victim.ece
Earlier thread:
Judge says sexually assaulted 14-year-old 'wasn't the victim she claimed to be'
