An Illinois judge has been removed from presiding over criminal cases following a decision to overturn a man’s sexual assault conviction.
Follow Herald-Whig, Judge Frank McCartney, chief justice of the Illinois’ Eighth Judcuit Circuit, removed Judge Robert Adrian of Adams County from the criminal court last week. Adrian will now preside over small claims, legal matters and probate filings, among other civil cases, the newspaper reported.
In October, Adrian found 18-year-old Drew Clinton guilty of one count of sexual assault. Clinton faces a minimum of four years in prison. But earlier this month, Adrian overturned the conviction and the mandatory sentence that will come with it.
Clinton was found guilty of digitally hacking a 16-year-old girl without her consent. Before being unmasked, Clinton spent 148 nights in prison, which Adrian said was “a lot of punishment” and a “fair sentence” for what happened in this case.
Adrian said it would not be just to send Clinton to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“This happened when this teenager – because he was and is a teenager, just 18 years old for two weeks,” Adrian told the court. “He doesn’t have any previous records, doesn’t have anything. By law, the court has to convict this young man to the Department of Corrections. This court won’t do that. It’s not only.”
The judge also criticized the parents who allowed the party to take place and gave alcohol to underage children.
Adrian said: “I can’t believe the adults involved in this case take their responsibility for these minors lightly. “This is what happens when parents don’t fulfill their parental responsibilities, when we have people, adults, throw teen parties, and they allow co-workers and women wear underwear in their swimming pools.”
Outrage quickly followed Adrian’s decision and comments, including from the girl who reported the assault.
“He makes me feel like I’m fighting for no reason and I ignore my words for no reason,” she told WGEM-TV. “I immediately had to leave the courtroom and go to the bathroom. I cried.”
She said the reported assault happened when she passed out last summer during Memorial Day weekend after getting drunk at a graduation party. Recounting what she said in court, she told WGEM that she woke up at her friend’s house “with a pillow over her face so I couldn’t hear and Drew Clinton inside of me.”
Her father told WGEM he doesn’t feel justice has been served in this case and his daughter, a former honor student and athlete, now has a C average and has dropped all her exams. sport.
