Steve Benen flagged this story this morning — of an Orange County judge who was reprimanded by the Commission on Judicial Performance for stating in court that a rape victim couldn’t have been really really raped because she didn’t put up a fight, and that the rape wasn’t a “real, live criminal case,” but only a “technical rape.” (The Judge later apologized, claiming that he was frustrated during arguments with the prosecution about sentencing.)
So, to recap: A man threatened to mutilate a woman’s face and vagina with a heated screwdriver, and was convicted of “rape, forcible oral copulation, domestic battery, stalking and making threats against his former live-in girlfriend,” but clearly it’s the victim’s fault because she didn’t fight hard enough and because, apparently, her body’s natural “don’t rape me, please” protection system wasn’t fully operational.
Yes, seriously:
Prosecutors sought a 16-year sentence, but Johnson instead imposed a six-year prison term. Then he explained why.
According to materials released yesterday, the judge said, “I’m not a gynecologist, but I can tell you something. If someone doesn’t want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down. The body will not permit that to happen unless a lot of damage in inflicted, and we heard nothing about that in this case. That tells me that the victim in this case, although she wasn’t necessarily willing, she didn’t put up a fight.”
Johnson added that the rape of Gurel’s victim was “technical,” and not “a real, live criminal case.”
You don’t need to be a gynecologist to know that the body doesn’t shut down when a woman doesn’t want to have sexual intercourse. Women do not have penis guillotines in their lady areas to ward off intruders.
I mean… what the crap?!
Akinism is alive and well — and it’s morphing. Remember, Todd Akin of the Legitimate Rape Akins claimed that the body has a way of shutting down to protect itself from becoming pregnant — you know… because women have natural anti-rape spermicide. Apparently now, the body has a way of shutting down and self-protecting from the rape itself — you know… because penis guillotines, I guess.
Funny how it is easier for some to invent science to avoid dealing with the very real problem of rape and rape culture in this country.
Republicans should just decriminalize rape already and be done with it. (I say “Republicans” because Orange County is a hotbed of republicanism.)
Stop insulting our intelligence.
As an aside, on the recommendation of @aliceinthewater, I have been reading The Knitting Circle Rapist Annihilation Squad. It’s a dark comedy about women who decide to take the law into their own hands by stabbing with knitting needles men who rape. It’s a dark comedy. Also? Perhaps an instruction manual.
[cross-posted at ABLC]
c u n d gulag
Well, I might not be a Proctologist, but I sure know an asshole when I see one!
This guy, showing absolutely no judgement, is a real Judge?
Hopefully, not for long.
taylormattd
Motherfucker should be disbarred. Period.
Violet
@taylormattd: Disbarred and banned from civil life entirely.
Are there any stories of women biting off men’s p3nises in situations like this? Seems like it would be the right thing to do.
Violet
@taylormattd: Disbarred and banned from civil life entirely.
Are there any stories of women biting off men’s p3nises in situations like this? Seems like it would be the right thing to do.
Violet
@taylormattd: Disbarred and banned from civil life entirely.
Are there any stories of women biting off men’s p3nises in situations like this? Seems like it would be the right thing to do.
danimal
Pen!s guillotines in the vajayjay? I thought wimminfolk had vagina dentata…BTW, am I in the wrong thread, or has this blog gone all ladyparts, all the time (which, thinking about it, would be fine with me)?
While I’m not surprised that this retrograde jurist is an OC Republican, you’d be surprised at the actual politics of OC. As an OC refugee living in SoCal’s Inland Empire, I can attest that the IE is the hotbed of Southern California Republicanism these days. Teh crazy went east on the 91 freeway and landed somewhere between Temecula and Hemet. Orange County is decidedly mixed electorally.
No One of Consequence
OT: Note to America: We may need to have a little chat about your firearms’ fetishizers…
What’s it gonna take?! One of these a fucking day?
Damn.
– NOoC
Violet
@taylormattd: Disbarred and banned from civil life entirely.
Are there any stories of women biting off men’s p3nises in situations like this? Seems like it would be the right thing to do.
Just Some Fuckhead
They should call these idiots “Guynapologists” or something even more clever than I am capable of producing.
cdmarine
Is this guy subject to reelection? Because I have to think that shit won’t fly come election time, even in the OC.
Gex
Dear Sir,
Lady parts work differently than your parts. Yes, for you, if the body isn’t willing, you don’t get to have sex. It’s not the same for women.
Also, as an aside, I’m pretty sure your trouble with that will stop as soon as you divorce your wife and get with that rent boy you’ve been eying.
But seriously, I hope she can get a new trial. If the judge decides the case on anti-facts (‘if it went in, then she wanted it’ seems to be the fact he used to decide.)
Also, I feel an epic, almost uncontainable rage towards the GOP. It’s not that they are all this. It’s that this is what they’ve promoted to get their fucking tax cuts. I’m sick to fucking death of Biblical views on human sexuality driving so much policy in this country.
Gin & Tonic
@Violet: I’m a penis-owner, myself, and I can’t help thinking that this would put the woman in even greater danger, if the dude has a weapon of some sort. Plus I can’t help thinking it would be difficult for teeth to actually get through the tissue in question. Think of the last really cheap steak you ate – you have to work at it.
dance around in your bones
Oooh, Vagina Dentata !!
I wish this judge could be ass-raped and see if his asshole shrinks down to a prune-mouth.
Oh, NO? Holy Fucking Shit. Too Bad For YOU!!
beergoggles
You should start reading hothead paisan after ur done with ur current reading list. Used to be one of my favorites in my younger years. Not at all as subtle as knitting needles.
Violet
Oh for heavens sake. I only pressed “Submit Comment” once. Ugh. FYWP.
SatanicPanic
@Violet: I bet that’s harder than you’d think.
Gin & Tonic
@Violet:
So, stupidly I replied using a real word. Here’s another try.
I’m a p3nis-owner, myself, and I can’t help thinking that this would put the woman in even greater danger, if the dude has a weapon of some sort. Plus I can’t help thinking it would be difficult for teeth to actually get through the tissue in question. Think of the last really cheap steak you ate – you’d have to work at it.
Violet
@SatanicPanic: @Gin & Tonic: Yeah, you’re probably right that it’s not an easy thing to do. And would enrage her rapist. Still, seems like men put themselves in some kind of danger when they forcibly put their p3nises in the mouth of an unwilling woman. Seems like there would be some story out there of an oral rape gone wrong for the rapist.
@Gex:
Perhaps someone should ask him about anal rape and just how his body would “shut that down” if his rapist had multiple weapons and was stronger than he was.
This man is not only unfit to be a judge he’s unfit to be in society.
Schlemizel
jesus. fucking. christ. thats all. this species no longer deserves to survive, where is the fucking meteor?
Villago Delenda Est
FAIL on the part of the Commission on Judicial Performance.
Reprimand, hell. This guy should have been removed from the bench for this shit, and then seriously considered for disbarment.
MikeJ
@dance around in your bones:
It means no p3nis for the rest of your days!
It’s our reproduction-free philosophy
Vagina Dentata!
EconWatcher
@Villago Delenda Est:
Why would any woman ever now think she could have a fair trial in front of this judge, on any issue (not just rape)?
It’s complicated to discipline a judge for just plain poor
reasoning, now matter how stupid. But this is more akin to gender discrimination.
If the judge said that he generally rules against women, because he doesn’t like them, I can’t imagine he’d be allowed to continue to sit. This seems similar.
Ted & Hellen
Some women are apparently born with a set of teeth…down there.
dance around in your bones
@MikeJ:
What a great name for a rock band, no?
Steve
The way we learned it in law school, it used to be the actual state of the law – quite recently, in some states – that if the victim didn’t “resist to the utmost,” it wasn’t rape. Sanity in rape law is a relatively recent development.
Schlemizel
yeah, I got moderation – forgot the rules@taylormattd: No, he should have his face and pee-pee (can’t use the grown up words) mutilated with a heated screwdriver (I’ll volunteer to do the work unless there is a sadist, who would enjoy it more, willing to step up). Then he could be disbarred
liberal
@taylormattd:
Sing it, bro!
Schlemizel
My SO at the time resisted when she was raped. The guy slashed he across the face repeatedly, stabbed her in the throat four or five times, strangled her until she passed out & then raped her. It may have been better for her had she not resisted, he ended her singing career forever.
But I guess this judge would have had his blood sacrifice so it would have been a real rape
Gretchen
He actually said that if she’d resisted harder, she would have been “more damaged”. But the desire not to be “more damaged” doesn’t explain her failure to resist harder. At least in his tiny mind.
Steve Finlay
Knitting needles — my 13 inch Blackthorn Straights would be perfect for using on Judge Johnson. Blackthorns are quite sharp – and they are made of carbon fibre.
Ruckus
@Schlemizel:
Maybe that’s why all the evangees are thinking next friday is the last, they know their shit is fucked up but they don’t know how to stop fucking the crazy chicken so they hope that dog comes in and fixes it up. And even if next friday isn’t the end they keep looking for something, someone, anyone to come by and smack down their stupid. And soon.
sparrow
@Schlemizel: @Schlemizel: Good god. That’s horrifying. :( I am glad she recovered. I hope the bastard is dead or in jail.
? Martin
I’m going to leave this here.
Different judge, mind you, but attitudes, they are too slow to change.
Turgidson
And in semi-related news that will shock all of no one, Bobby the Exorcist Jindal has penned an op-ed, which can be filed away as entry number 913 in the continuing GOP series: “POLICIES = AWESOME, BUT WE MUST LIE ABOUT THEM BETTER!”
His is about how the GOP needs to be more friendly toward the wimmin, but it offers no new ideas other than “WAAAAHHH!!! Democrats were MEAN to POINT OUT the horrible anti-woman bullshit we were doing all over the place instead of passing jobs bills! They even called it a War on Women! That’s OUR move, how could they?!”
No introspection at all. Just, mean Democrats were mean and we need to say things better (lie) so they can’t be mean anymore. Keep it up, morans. The GOP has become nothing more than a poorly managed propaganda/marketing operation.
ranchandsyrup
This same brilliant judicial mind famously fell for the “I need double kosher meals for Festivus” argument of a prisoner. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/12/oc-inmate-claims-religious-ties-to-festivus-to-score-better-food.html
wrb
His momma knew this boy was gonna be trouble so she told him the tale of the penis guillotines.
wrb
His momma knew this boy was gonna be trouble so she told him the tale of the pe-nis guillotines
danah gaz
What the shit is this?!?
This is… OMG… Is it possible for someone to get disbarred for being a stupid arsehole? Emphasis on stupid. No wait, emphasis on arsehole.
Why wasn’t he thrown over the wall?
/facepalm
/weeps
JoyceH
Whenever I see a quote like this, someone who’s been educated and ought to know better saying things that are blatantly and ridiculously wrong, I think that people don’t believe stuff like this unless they have a really compelling reason to want to believe it. I think that somewhere in the person’s past, there’s an incident that they’ve been trying to explain away to themselves for decades, telling themselves, ‘it wasn’t REALLY rape, because…’ Because we were dating. Because we were drunk. Because she made those risque jokes earlier, so she was hinting she wanted it. Because she didn’t report it. On and on and on, trying (and perhaps succeeding) to convince themselves that they aren’t really a rapist.
This one is a real doozy – it wasn’t really rape because the act was successful?! I think if an investigative journalist or a private investigator would look into the pasts of the men who make these remarks, they would find the women.
Mnemosyne
Remember, ladies, always buy the needles with the stiletto tips.
The Other Chuck
As I understand it, there’s simply no way the commission could have disbarred Judge Johnson on the spot for all kinds of reasons, some procedural, but mostly the fact that you can’t disbar for being a complete asshole who’s stupid and wrong. Overturn, yes, disbar no.
However, his judgement on any case involving domestic violence or sexual assault is now very much in question, and people are going to be going over his entire case history looking for ammo. If it turns out to be a pattern, I’d say he’s history.
I’d love to see the headline if he does get disbarred:
OC Bar Cuts Off Johnson.
It’d be nice to hear from one of the actual lawyers around here on this score.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Those look….
Just right.
AnneW
@Mnemosyne:
I have a pair. They’re awesome! The Holy Grail would be a set of Signature interchangeable circular needles.
Drunken hausfrau
I remember that a woman developed a condom-like device that a woman could wear that had spikes in it… Similar to porcupine quills… If someone forcible tried to insert something, I.e., a penis, it would be impaled. She got a patent? Or was denied a patent? I don,t remember … I will search the intertubes. But, I think we should have a product like that.
Schlemizel
@sparrow: His mom gave him an alibi – said he was at home at the time of the attack. About 2 weeks later he was caught in the act. I know he was given jail time but I don’t know how long.
I still can’t really express my anger & grief, and I don’t know how she could ever deal with it
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
Regardless of whether I agree with you about whether removal is the appropriate sanction, it must be noted as a matter of historical fact that removal is extremely rare, and it would be utterly crazy given the ridiculous resource constraints under which the California court system is currently operating..
What this points out is the need for a sanction etween public reprimand and removal. If suspension without pay we’re an available sanction, I’m pretty certain this clown would have been suspended.
burnspbesq
@The Other Chuck:
I practice in OC, but the only time I ever set foot in OC Superior is as a prospective juror.
As a rule, nation-wide, state trial court judges are generally not drawn from among the sharpest saws in the toolbox. This guy is pretty typical: he somehow leveraged a fairly undistinguished career in the DA’s office into a seat on the bench.
The truly appalling thing about his remarks at sentencing, which is included in the CJP opinion but hasn’t been talked about much in the media, is that this guy spent the last 18 months of his time in the DA’s office working in the sex-crimes unit!
I get why he wasn’t removed, but I wish he had been.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl)
@Steve:
And let me guess, the way the court would judge that resistance was the amount of damage to her body, particularly the lady parts? Why should a woman, whose life and parts are being threatened, HAVE fight back just so the rapist can damage her enough to make people believe that she was raped? So according to this fecking idjit of a judge, unless her vagina is completely torn up, it wasn’t legitimate rape? OMFG The a$$backwards logic of that blows my mind. I don’t know about other women, but if someone put a heated metal object near my parts I would sit very, very still because if a burn on your hand hurts, imagine how bad it would hurt on your genitals, breasts, etc. Ugh…..sometimes I want to just hide away from the world and stories like this and the shooting in Conn definitely make me feel that way.
El Cid
The conservative political party in this country and its followers don’t know where babies come from.
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S.
Sometimes I hate this country.
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq:
I would think that, as a matter of the man’s temperament (“I was frustrated with the Prosecution”) it would be imperative to remove him from the bench. Because he’ll do something stupid like this again, and bring further disrepute onto the institution.
PIGL
@JoyceH: absolutely. Always, it’s projection.
IQ49
Remember “THAT” scene in Deliverance? What if the judge were to be the recipient in such a scene? Would his body “shut down” or would he squeal like a pig? What a just and righteous lesson that would be for his squealing ignorant ass.
ABL
@Just Some Fuckhead: that’s actually quite clever…