(UPDATE: Jacob Walter Anderson is now attempting to attend UT Dallas. Sign the petition to keep the freed, sexual predator from attending the university and potentially attacking someone else.)
This is breaking news: Ex-frat president Jacob Walter Anderson, indicted on four counts of sexual assault, won’t spend a single day in prison.
That’s right. Instead, the man responsible for violently raping a woman, nearly choking her to death and leaving her passed out in her own vomit, plead no contest to a lesser charge of unlawful restraint.
I am not an advocate of violence but I’m furious and cannot imagine there won’t be some kind of riot somewhere. The very idea that in 2018, any judge in their right mind would think this was acceptable is almost incomprehensible. There are no two ways about it: the 24-year-old former Baylor University student should be in jail.
And keep in mind that this girl was reportedly not only just a teen but a virgin, as well.
This decision is so monumentally stupid, so terrible, even Canada is covering the story:
Texas judge accepts plea bargain allowing man accused of repeatedly raping a woman at a Baylor University party to avoid serving jail time. Jacob Walter Anderson pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of unlawful restraint and has agreed to seek counselling and pay a $400 fine.
— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) December 11, 2018
The plea agreement between Anderson’s defense team and the McLennan County, Texas, district attorney’s office has obviously and justifiably so, infuriated the victim and her attorney.
“Judge Ralph Strother, in 19th District Court, accepted the state’s plea agreement and sentenced Jacob Walter Anderson, 24, to three years on deferred probation, which if he completes will leave him without a criminal record.”1
In her victim impact statement, she harshly criticized the court saying:
“I am devastated by your decision to let my rapist Jacob Walter Anderson go free without any punishment. He is now free to roam society, stalk women and no one will know he is a sex offender. Jacob Anderson and all rapists who get away with their crimes will never be cured, never change. If anything they will be emboldened by their power over women and their ability to escape justice and punishment.”2
According to “Donna Doe”- who reported the rape immediately after it happened– she was handed a drink of some kind at a party and told to drink it. She says that shortly after that she became very disoriented and was taken outside Anderson, where he went on to assault her.
In her own words, “Donna Doe” said Anderson “repeatedly raped me orally and (vaginally). When he forcefully picked me up and shoved me into a wall to rape me vaginally from behind he calmly and coldly said, ‘It’s fine. You’re fine.’ When I tried to pull up my pants or sit he shoved me to the ground and shoved his penis back down my throat and continued to choke me. When he forced me up again and started to rape me vaginally again I blacked out permanently. When I was completely unconscious he dumped me face down in the dirt and left me there to die. He had taken what he wanted, had proven his power over my body. He then walked home and went to bed without a second thought to the ravaged, half dead woman he had left behind.”3
Assistant District Attorney Hilary LaBorde later issued a statement saying:
“Given the claims made publicly, I understand why people are upset. However, all of the facts must be considered and there are many facts that the public does not have. In approving this agreement, Judge Strother had access to all the statements that have ever been made by all people involved and agreed that the plea agreement offered was appropriate in this case.”4
So just to recap, even though a rape kit was done and was positive, that’s not a fact that, according to Assistant DA Hilary LaBorde, should cause a person to go to jail. Shame, shame, shameful.
There are almost no words. We are both angered and saddened for her.
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