Group protests lenient judge who released convicted child rapist
5:40 p.m. Thursday, June 14, 2007
Dozens of people lined up outside the Shawnee County Court House holding signs in support of a young rape victim and demanding answers from the judge that let her offender walk free.
The victim's father is still struggling to make sense of the ruling.
"There is just too much anger and frustration on my part and really there is nothing that man can say at this point to ease my mind," Mike, the victim's father, said.
Even the victim herself is speaking out. We blurred her face because 49 News does not identify rape victims.
"He did the wrong thing," she said.
With signs crying for justice, community members stepped up to offer support to a victim of rape - and tell the judge who let her offender walk that it's time for him to step down.
Read a partial transcript of the Court's decision in the Cisneros case at www.shawneecourt.org.
When asked if she would like to see Judge Dowd step down, protester Emma Cunningham said, "Yes." How soon? "Yesterday," she said.
"I think that's the best thing that could happen," said "Ace", a member of Bikers Against Child Abuse. "Personally, I think the judge should take the sentence for him."
Judge Matthew Dowd gave Orlando Paul Cisneros three years probation instead of the suggested 13 years behind bars, stating during Cisneros sentencing that the offender's actions were a disastrous lack of judgement and failure to act as a mature individual.
He went on to say his decision took into account the defendant had positive traits, like family support and economic stability, an excuse painfully unacceptable to the victim's family and supporters.
"Where was his family support when he was raping and molesting my daughter?," Mike asked.
But as the family waits for the sentence to go through appeals...
"We feel we've been victimized not only by the perpetrator, but also by the judicial system," Mike said.
"It feels like they're out here for a good cause," said the victim.
...they say there is some sense of healing with so much community support.
We tried to contact Judge Dowd but were not able to reach him.
The state is appealing the sentence, but that process can take a year, maybe more.
Comments
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Jun. 14, 2007 at 11:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)Prince_of_Thrift (anonymous)
The Judge needs to go now! It is plumb stupidity tht a Judge would allow a mollestor go free on probation like this. It proves that Judge Dowd was ignoring this girl,
I was molested when I was 11 or 12 by someone in my small home town. I was lucky though, even though my parents and everyone else ignored me, the inappropriate behavior only happened to me once. Other victims of this horrible crime are victimized repeatedly.
I cannot understand why Dowd would ignore these kids.
As I said before, he must go NOW!!!!!
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