A Utah judge gave a corrections officer just probation and 8 months of home confinement after he ADMITTED to sexually abusing two female inmates by touching their breasts and genitals.
Prosecutors requested a sentence of 4 years, but the judge said the case was "he said, she said" and questioned the victim's credibility. "I just feel like I kind of just got...told I was the worst and I wasn't innocent and I feel like I was being told that I deserved what I got," said victim Deborah Hatch.
Again, David Stein Epperson of Wasatch County, Utah, ADMITTED that he had touched the bare breasts of two female inmates and that he touched the genital area of one of them.
Executive director of the Rape Recovery Center, Holly Mullen, said she was surprised to hear the judge's comments, adding that dismissing a sexual assault as a “she said, he said” is part of the reason such crimes are so under-reported.
“For many years now there’s really only been about a 10 percent reporting rate of sexual crimes,” Mullen said to The Raw Story. “There’s a very strong culture that exists … that [says] this is just going to be too difficult to prove. [Prosecutors] will tell victims, ‘I’m sorry. I’m not saying this didn’t happen to you, but we can’t make a case,’ and it does have a chilling effect.”
Demand that this Utah Judge, U.S. District Judge David Sam, be unseated for his actions.
Dear Sir,
We the undersigned ask that the judge who victim-blamed sexual assult victims be unseated.
A Utah judge gave a corrections officer just probation and 8 months of home confinement after he ADMITTED to sexually abusing two female inmates by touching their breasts and genitals.
Prosecutors requested a sentence of 4 years, but the judge said the case was "he said, she said" and questioned the victim's credibility. "I just feel like I kind of just got...told I was the worst and I wasn't innocent and I feel like I was being told that I deserved what I got," said victim Deborah Hatch.
Again, David Stein Epperson of Wasatch County, Utah, ADMITTED that he had touched the bare breasts of two female inmates and that he touched the genital area of one of them.
Executive director of the Rape Recovery Center, Holly Mullen, said she was surprised to hear the judge's comments, adding that dismissing a sexual assault as a “she said, he said” is part of the reason such crimes are so under-reported.
“For many years now there’s really only been about a 10 percent reporting rate of sexual crimes,” Mullen said to The Raw Story. “There’s a very strong culture that exists … that [says] this is just going to be too difficult to prove. [Prosecutors] will tell victims, ‘I’m sorry. I’m not saying this didn’t happen to you, but we can’t make a case,’ and it does have a chilling effect.”
We ask that this Utah Judge, U.S. District Judge David Sam, be unseated for his actions.
