Montana high court censures judge over comments in rape case

Associated Press

HELENA, Mont.

The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday publicly reprimanded a judge who gave a lenient sentence to a rapist after suggesting the 14-year-old victim shared some of the responsibility for the crime.

District Judge G. Todd Baugh, of Billings, appeared before the court in Helena, where Chief Justice Mike McGrath read the prepared censure statement. A censure is a rarely used public declaration by the high court that a judge is guilty of misconduct.

The Supreme Court also suspended him for 31 days, effective in December.

Baugh sent Stacey Dean Rambold to prison for 30 days last year after he pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse without consent.

Rambold was a 47-year-old business teacher at Billings Senior High School at the time of the 2007 rape. The victim was one of his students. She committed suicide while the case was pending trial.

Baugh said during Rambold’s sentencing in August that the teenager was “probably as much in control of the situation as the defendant” and that she “appeared older than her chronological age.”

Under state law, children younger than 16 cannot consent to sexual intercourse.