Judge blames victim, sentences former teacher to 30 days in jail for rape of 14-year-old student who later committed suicide

After determining the rape victim was "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control of the situation" as her then 49-year-old teacher, Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced former Billings Senior High School business teacher Stacey Rambold to 30 days in jail for admitting to having sex with a 14-year-old student.

There's good news for teachers everywhere who wish to engage in sexual intercourse with their minor students: In Montana the crime carries just a 30-day jail sentence.

On Monday, Judge G. Todd Baugh sentenced former teacher Stacey Dean Rambold to 15 years in prison after he previously admitted to having sex with a student who was 14 at the time. The judge gave him credit for one day served and suspended all but 30 days of the remaining 15-year sentence.

The student committed suicide a few weeks before her 17th birthday in 2010.

Rambold had taught business at Billings Senior High School for four years before engaging in the inappropriate relationship. In his first year at the school, Rambold met with the school's principal to discuss allegations he had touched a girl's thigh and waist and was warned to keep his hands off students in the future or that a formal investigation would be conducted with a copy of it going in his personnel file.

Rambold was 49 in 2007, when the relationship began with a then-14-year-old student. In April 2008 he was placed on administrative leave until he resigned three months later. He also surrendered his teaching certificate.

In the fall of 2008 he was charged with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent based on allegations he had an ongoing relationship with the student over the course of a semester. The charges alleged the two had intercourse at his house, the school and in his vehicle.

In 2010, Rambold entered a three-year deferred prosecution agreement that allowed for the charges to be dismissed if he completed a sex offender treatment program and met other conditions, such has having no contact with children. He admitted to one charge of rape at that time. One of the reasons for the delayed prosecution agreement was due to the girl's death. (It is hard to prove a rape case without a victim at trial.)

The school settled a wrongful death lawsuit with her parents for at least $91,000. The terms of the settlement between Rambold and her family were confidential.

In December, prosecutors learned Rambold had been terminated from the program in November because he missed meetings and had unsupervised meetings with minor relatives. He has since completed a similar treatment program.

On Monday, Chief Deputy County Attorney Rod Souza recommended that Judge Baugh* sentence Rambold to 20 years in prison with 10 years suspended.

Instead, the judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison with all but 31 days suspended. An additional day was credited as time served. Rambold will serve 30 days in jail for one count of sexual intercourse without consent for admitting to having sex with his former 14-year-old student.

In announcing the sentence, Judge Baugh said he listened to the girl's statements made before her death and determined that she was "as much in control of the situation" as Rambold was and that she was "older than her chronological age."

Rambold's attorney argued that the suspended sentence was justified because the affair/rape had cost his client his marriage, home and career and that he had suffered a "scarlet letter of the internet" as a result of the case's publicity.

Victim blaming is alive and well in the state of Montana, or at least inside the chambers of Judge G. Todd Baugh, who once was on the bench for a plea bargain case that resulted in the dismal of what would be a defendant's 13th DUI conviction. (But before he sentenced her for something other than a DUI conviction, he did warn her that if she killed someone while drinking and driving, she'd face "some real time in prison.")

Not only did the judge place a 14-year-old girl on equal footing in a relationship with her 49-year-old teacher, he decided that being shunned on the Internet is punishment enough for rape that ended with the victim taking her own life due largely in part to the aftermath of the relationship and it's discovery and the resulting criminal investigation and prosecution. (And probably due in part to the very unkind words her fellow classmates likely threw her way, both in front of her and behind her back.)

As a result of this case, criminal defense attorneys in Montana should start creating Facebook pages calling out their client's criminal behavior in the future as a strategy to reduce sentencing for their admittedly guilty clients.

In the state of Montana rape without consent, the charge Rambold pleaded guilty to and was sentenced for, is defined by Mont. Code Ann. § 45-5-501 as the victim being incapable to consent because the victim is, among other reasons, under the age of 16.

This means that the state of Montana's legislature, the body responsible for writing and passing the state's laws, determined that a minor under the age of 16 is incapable to give the consent needed to engage in sexual intercourse. This means that by definition, a 14-year-old girl cannot be in "as much in control of the situation" as her adult rapist/counterpart.

But apparently, Judge Baugh knows more about the girl being "older than her chronological age" than the state legislature. Never mind that the crime carries a sentence of four to 100 years in prison and up to a $50,000 fine. Clearly, the 30-day sentence exception because "the victim was in 'as much in control of the situation' as the other party" defense is in play here. No word on the discounted sentence received in Judge Baugh's courtroom is for girls that were "asking for it" or that "shouldn't have dressed like that."

Only two people know for sure what happened between Rambold and his former student and one of them is no longer alive. But it doesn't matter what happened between the two or how "much in control of the situation" the student actually was in control of the situation.

When one person in a situation is an adult and the other is a child, the adult always has to be the one in control of the situation. This is even truer when that adult happens to occupy a position of trust in the child's life, such as a teacher, coach or religious leader. It doesn't matter if Rambold walked into his classroom and discovered the girl sitting on his desk naked. He still has to be the adult in that situation and say, "No, this is inappropriate, you need to get dressed and leave my classroom right now," and then probably report the situation to his boss so he doesn't get into trouble later.

The correct reaction to that situation, or any situation at all, isn't to willingly engage in sexual activities with that minor. Minors are incapable of giving consent to engage in sexual activity. That reason alone is the entire purpose behind the state's statutory rape law. That purpose has apparently been lost on Judge G. Todd Baugh.

The victim's mother had it right as she yelled, "You people suck" as she stormed out of the courtroom Monday.

* Bonus fact: Judge Baugh's dad is Sammy Baugh, the hall of fame quarterback credited with making the forward pass a big deal in the NFL and who was one of the original charter members of the Hall of Fame. He set 13 records in three positions - quarterback, punter and defensive back. Two of those records still stand and another was broken by Russell Wilson last year.*