Sounds like the Governor's not real happy about it, either. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Governor blasts judge for lenient sentence in sex crime
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) -- In a
decision that outraged the governor and others,
a judge sentenced a man to one year of home
detention after he pleaded guilty to kidnapping
and trying to rape a 12-year-old boy.
Charles Horton, 32, admitted to dressing up as
a woman, luring the boy into his car November
20 by asking him to help find "her" son, then holding a screwdriver to the
boy's neck while forcing him to simulate sex acts.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of eight to 10 years in jail, plus 10 years
of probation.
Superior Court Judge MariaLopez sentenced the Boston man to home
detention Wednesday, giving him permission to attend school and
counseling. She called the crime "low-scale."
Gov. Paul Cellucci launched a review, saying he wants to find out whether
Lopez has an established pattern of lenient sentencing. He has not decided
whether to take any official action, he said.
"This is a disturbing decision," Cellucci said Thursday. "It is every parent's
worst nightmare: Your young child gets snatched up by a stranger, lured
away, and assaulted. ... Instead of protecting the defendant from the
prosecutors, the judge should be protecting the public from the defendant."
In a statement released Thursday, Lopez said information she cannot
disclose would change the public's mind about the sentence.
William Leahy, chief of the public defender service that represented Horton,
said a prison sentence could have been justified. But he said Lopez's
sentence was just as appropriate because Horton has attempted to change
since his arrest, receiving counseling, earning a high school equivalency
degree and re-establishing contact with his family and religion.
An advocate for transgendered people, Penni Matz, said Horton was being
singled out. "It was a 'We have to stop these freaks from doing this' sort of
thing, and I think (the judge) responded appropriately to it," Matz said.
The judge's sentencing decisions have put her in the spotlight before. Last
year, she allowed probation for a woman who pleaded guilty to beating and
burning her 13-year-old daughter. She also sentenced a former correction
officer to probation for repeatedly raping an 11-year-old girl.
But in 1996, Lopez was the first to use a new law that allowed tougher
sentences in assaults on children, sentencing a man to 10 years after he
admitted scalding his girlfriend's 5-month-old daughter.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
[/quote]
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individuals personal life influence her decision. 