A judge in western Illinois who he himself had found a man
guilty of sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl,
has actually decided to throw out the very conviction that he had handed down.
And the reason why he did it is because he just doesn't want the 18
year old man who did the rape to spend any more time in prison.
The judge argues that the 148 days the man spent in jail was punishment enough and
that she should not have to serve the mandatory minimum sentence of four years.
Now let me give you the context on how this all went down.
The case started with the arrest of 18 year old Drew Clinton
after he attended a may 30th graduation party.
Now during the trial.
Adams, county Judge Robert Adrian heard evidence that the girl had
told police she'd attended the party where she drank alcohol and
swam in a pool in her underwear before she eventually passed out.
She said she woke up to a pillow, pushed on her face and
Clinton sexually assaulting her.
The teen was able to push him off of her and then told a friend what happened.
She later told her father who called the police.
So they reported it, the trial happened of course and
the perpetrator was found guilty.
Drew Clinton was found guilty to give you a statement from the victim here
who has chosen to identify herself.
Cameron Vaughn is her name.
She says I woke up at my friend's place with a pillow over my face so
I couldn't be heard.
And Drew Clinton inside of me.
He raped her, he raped her and he was convicted of raping her.
And then the very judge who heard the trial heard the evidence,
decided to throw out that conviction.
Because he just didn't want this poor rapist spend additional time behind bars.
Adrian found Clinton guilty of felony sexual assault.
But during a January 3rd sentencing hearing,
he said he would not impose the mandatory minimum sentence of four years in prison.
And here's his reasoning, this is a direct statement from the Judge Verbatim.
Mr. Clinton has served almost five months in the county jail
148 days for what happened in this case.
That is plenty of punishment.
That would be a just sentence.
There is no way for what happened in this case that this teenager, he's 18,
he's an adult should go to the Department of Corrections, I will not do that.
And so since there's a mandatory minimum, the judge has no choice.
If there is a conviction, he would have to sentence him to the mandatory minimum.
The judge said that if you were to rule that the sentencing statute,
he was bound to follow was unconstitutional.
His decision would be overturned and
Clinton would be ordered to prison in order to avoid an appeal.
He believed would be successful.
Adrian said he would or he could do what he could do was determine
that the prosecutors had failed to prove their case and
dismissed the sexual assault charge.
So was he listened to the evidence and based on that evidence had convicted
this rapist and then because of this mandatory minimum sentence.
And because of the fact that he didn't want this rapist to spend any more time
in prison, he decided to throw out that conviction his own conviction.
It's. >> Yeah I mean it's it's the definition of
favors being paid for
certain people of course who knows what this young man's family connections are.
Or how something this obviously corrupt could happen.
I mean I do want to say first and foremost because and I say this all the time.
I feel like we do over and not overemphasize.
But the majority of the oxygen when we talk about something like this generally
goes to how punitively can we punish the perpetrator who's involved and
the punishment part is important.
I wonder what level of resources and
support this victim is getting in light of this freaking decision right.
Like I wonder if she's being supported emotionally and all of that.
Like I wonder you know I think about that in these cases like yeah this guy,
he's not getting his comeuppance.
But I wonder what type of support is there for the victim in this and
again I'll say this I'm not one of these lock them up throw away the key,
you know lock them up forever.
Bury them under the jail type of person and
I do believe in the power of human beings to be rehabilitated.
However 3- 4 months is not a long enough time to sit down
after you've done something this violent and
this horrible that that's just that's just not gonna cut it.
I think this is a complete and utter miscarriage of justice.
Obviously it's horrible.
You can't tell me we send people to jail for years for stuff like weed.
You know the idea that somebody could violently assault somebody this way and
violate them this way and just be they did a three and a half months bid.
It's it's fine.
They're good.
This is we don't want to do anything excessive here.
Like that's absurd.
>> You know you asked I think an important and
unique question in these kinds of circumstances.
A question that's unique because it never gets asked,
is the victim getting the support that she needs.
And look I don't know all the details.
So there might be something taking place to help her out that I'm not
informed about.
But I do know that the other part of this case that was infuriating
was that the judge decided to essentially go after the victim's parents.
So they're terrible parents, how could you let your daughter go to this party,
how dare you, it was mostly shifting the blame onto the parents.
So look, you can have an argument that underage kids shouldn't be drinking and
bluh, but that doesn't give anyone license to rape others.
To rape someone who's drunk to literally to put a pillow over her face,
so no one can hear her screams as she, as he's raping her.
That's what happened in this case and he was convicted, but
the very judge who convicted him decided to reverse that, so
he wouldn't have to spend any more time behind bars.
And by the way, there's even more to this story that's enraging believe it or not.
So there's been justified backlash to the judge's decision here, but
he can't handle the heat.
Judge Adrian apparently angered by the criticism, told another prosecutor
appearing before him in an unrelated case to leave his courtroom.
Because the prosecutor had like to comment on Facebook,
that was critical of the judge.
In fact, the judge said, [LAUGH] quote, I can't be fair to you.
Adrian told the Adams County prosecutor get out, wow.
So Mr. tough guy basically tells a victim of rape to kick rocks, but
he can't handle someone liking something he doesn't like on Facebook.
No this guy.
Should not be a judge, I don't think that this is the kind of handing out justice.
Exactly.
>> Yeah.