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Rape sentence reduced for autistic teen--WDYT?
Just got around to reading an older article in the local paper and I have no idea how I feel about this:
More than two years after she was lured off a playground and raped by a Crofton teenager, the young victim still asks her mother if the bad man will come and get her again.
But Tuesday a panel of three county judges slashed the original sentence, leaving Raszewski to serve no more than 20 years behind bars for the March 2009 attack.
The new sentence means he will probably be released after just 12 years, due to good time and other credits.
In an opinion filed Friday in county Circuit Court, Judges Pamela L. North, Paul F. Harris and Ronald A. Silkworth agreed the original sentence was excessive in light of the South River High School student's youth, lack of criminal record and recent diagnosis with atypical autism.
Kristin Fleckenstein, a spokeswoman for the county State's Attorney's Office, said in the last decade she cannot recall another sentence that had been changed this significantly.
Prosecutors, angered by the decision, packed the courtroom to hear the resentencing, along with the victim's mother, stepfather, grandmothers and aunt.
The Capital is not naming the victim's family members to protect her identity.
The girl's family gripped tissues and shook their heads in disagreement. A few minutes into the hearing, the victim's mother stood shaking and crying.
"I can't (expletive) take this," she said, before storming out of the courtroom. Two family members followed.
Standing over 6 feet tall, with buzzed hair and heavy facial hair, Raszewski clasped his hands in front of his body and remained silent. He didn't flinch when the victim's sobbing mother cursed in his direction.
The victim's family later said Raszewski was smart, manipulative and "played the autism thing completely over the roof."
"He was on the football team, he had a girlfriend ? he's not an idiot," the victim's mother said. "He's 17 when he did this. At that age you should be registering for college. I don't believe he's that stupid."
"They made it all about him," the victim's grandmother said. "They made it all about him (Raszewski) being the victim."
The girl's mother was furious that Raszewski will likely be out of prison before he turns 30, while her daughter will live with his actions for the rest of her life.
"It bothers the mess out of me," she said.
On the family's behalf, Assistant State's Attorney Sandra Howell requested that Silkworth modify a condition of the sentence to limit the distance Raszewski can live from the victim. Silkworth said he would consult North and Harris about this condition.
Other conditions: Raszewski is to have five years of supervised probation upon his release, he must register as a sex offender, he is to have no contact with the victim or her family and no unsupervised contact with children under 18, and he will have a psychiatric evaluation and therapy to address his autism.
The victim's parents said they were extremely worried that Raszewski will come into contact with their daughter. The girl, 7 at the time of the attack, will have her driver's license when Raszewski is released. They fear for her safety when she's a teen and out on her own.
The family, skeptical that Raszewski can change in prison, also worries of the possibility of future victims.
"I feel like he's going to be angry" when he gets out of prison, her stepfather said.
In a written statement, State's Attorney Frank R. Weatherbee said he disapproved of the panel's decision.
"We, like the victim's family, are confounded," he said. "We feel strongly that Judge Mulford's sentence was just and appropriate in a case as troubling as this. Not only is the offense so severe that it merited the sentence handed down by the trial judge, but our fear of the defendant's propensity to re-offend is monumental."
At the April 2010 sentencing, Mulford said he wanted to make sure Raszewski didn't hurt any other children.
"Part of me fears she was just the first," he said at the time.
Spencer Gordon, who took over as Raszewski's attorney last year, said Raszewski is likely to re-offend if he doesn't get the appropriate treatment. But he expects his client will get that treatment in prison.
He said his client's autism was a mitigating factor.
"There was just something not right about him," he said. "It's obvious when you talk to him."
According to prosecutors, Raszewski walked up to the victim at about 3:30 p.m. while she played on a swing set behind his townhouse on Granite Court. The girl was alone while her baby sitter took her little brother to a nearby home to use the bathroom.
Prosecutors said Raszewski lured the girl to his home. Inside, he pushed her into his room and sexually assaulted her in several different ways. After 5 to 10 minutes he stopped, gave her a few dollars and let her go.
Re: Rape sentence reduced for autistic teen--WDYT?
This is coming from someone who admittedly knows little about autism (other than what I hear/read about in the news or talk about casually) but I feel like if he's smart/together enough to understand what he was doing was wrong, he deserves to serve the time. I have a sister her age (9 years old) and this story just kind of makes me sick...I don't think he should have gotten less of a sentence. Rape is rape.
I think that's a bad idea.
I'm not really sure how autism affects his ability to see/know right from wrong. Of course, its a shitty article, b/c instead of actually covering that and discussing autism, they give you sad/angry reactions from the parents.
Autism is a spectrum disorder so I would want to know where on the spectrum his Austism is because that is a major factor in whether he understands consequences and right from wrong. That being said from what I've just read (I didn't read the entire thing) he was savy enough to lure her into the home so that to me says he knew what he was doing was wrong.
I don't think the sentence should have been reduced and I even think he should have gotten the max sentence. The poor little girl has a life sentence of trying to emotionally moving on from the rape.
Ha, I mean, it's the Capital, do you expect Pulitzer-caliber journalism?
Here's my thing: if he was truly unable to tell right from wrong, then I do feel sorry for him but then he won't be rehabilitated, right? And his lawyer says he hopes the guy gets the treatment he needs in prison which means to me that there's no laid-out plan for said treatment. Which is kinda horrific for everyone.
Mostly, it just makes me so, so sad.
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I will say that my answer may have been different if he were extremely autistic and had no clue what he was doing, or why it was wrong, etc. But, after reading the article, i'm not getting the impression that he is severely autistic. It does sound like something that is coming up now and being used as a defense and I don't like that. If he was in regular education, on the football team, etc, then it seems to me that he would have known what he was doing - I mean, giving the girl money?? And she was SEVEN?? Yeah I think something seems 'off' in this case. I'm far from a psychiatrist ha but the article is portraying him as someone who is fairly high-functioning, which would indicate in my mind that he should realize you don't rape little girls. Especially the whole luring her into a house.
and now I feel sick to my stomach.
I read about this in the Capital (we are subscribers to the fine publication!) before we went away and I was terrified by the reduction in sentence.
The secret-fan-of-vigilante-justice in me figures that he probably won't make it through prison.
I agree
Maybe he'll just get a chance to earn a little money and make some new friends.
I had heard about this before and, from what I have read, it does sound like they came up with the autism diagnosis to get a shorter sentence. How could he have been on the football team, been in mainstream classes, etc. etc. and nobody realized this?
According to media that I have read, he is on the very very low end. He graduated high school with a regular diploma, never received nor requested special ed classes throughout his education career. Played football (that means at least a 2.0 gpa), had a girlfriend, part time job, etc.
Just as a passerby, I seriously seriously question his diagnosis and the doctor who signed the paper (acknowledging I have no personal knowledge of this person).
The secret vigilante in my hopes he gets raped everyday in prison and then gets to come home and relive it every day.
I don't know enough facts about autism to make an educated opinion but from what I *think" I know he doesn't seem to be affected enough to not know what he was doing.
Also, again, I might be wrong, but nothing I have ever read about Autism would even suggest that people on the spectrum could be violent towards another person in this kind of way .. if anything wouldn't it be more of the opposite, trying to get away from people?