“Standing behind predators makes prey of us all.” ― DaShanne Stokes
Judge Hauler suspends jail time for a man who tied up and sexually assaulted a 14 year old girl.
How could a judge suspend jail time for a repeat sexual offender who tied up and assaulted a 14 year old teen? The Richmond Times Dispatch posted Former Cosby High student will serve no active jail time in sexual assault of 14-year-old girl.
A Chesterfield County judge on Wednesday decided not to impose any active prison time on a former Cosby High School student ,Logan Michael Osborn, who prosecutors say tied up and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl after they attended a school play together.
…“The family is disappointed that the defendant will not serve any active incarceration for the brutal attack on the victim,” said Chesterfield prosecutor Erin Barr after the proceeding, speaking on behalf of the family, who declined to comment. “They do not believe justice has been served and shared concern for community safety and future potential victims.”
According to the prosecution, Osborn forced himself on the victim after getting her alone and tied a belt around her neck and hands before the assault.
This was not Osbourne’s first rodeo.
Osborn has been accused seven times of engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct with girls, and one of those earlier incidents resulted in him being charged, at age 12, with grabbing the genitals of another student. The case was taken under advisement by the court and eventually dismissed.
Even a clinical psychologist said that Osbourne is a risk for reoffending.
Dr. Evan Nelson, a clinical psychologist who evaluated the defendant, determined through standardized testing that Osborn was at “moderately high risk” for reoffending. But Nelson believed the test underestimated Osborn’s risk, which the psychologist labeled as “high.”
So, we have a judge who didn’t think this was so bad. Osbourne’s attorney, Todd Stone, claimed that the was a consensual act!!!
Osborn’s attorney has described the sexual encounter as consensual and said that a series of text messages the girl and Osborn exchanged “supports his version of the facts.”
The electrical company which employs Osbourne’s says *the sky’s the limit* for their wonderful employee.
This case received attention on national and international news. Reporting from the UK, the Independent posted Man who tied up and sexually assaulted 14-year-old girl will not go to jail after US court hears incident was ‘consensual’
It discussed the rather bizarre comment by the judge who said he wanted to hear some positive things about the assailant. Isn’t it nice to learn that the *sky’s the limit” for the future of Osbourne with his electrical company job. Glad to hear this company employs such upstanding members of the community. I can assure you that I would never hire this company given the following.
During a hearing on Wednesday, the Richmond Times-Dispatchreported that he told a defence lawyer: “I need to hear some positive things.”
A foreman at an electrical company where Osborn works was called to give evidence and described him as a “model employee”.
“The sky’s the limit,” he said of Osborn’s future with the firm.
The judge has encountered opposition for his decisions in the past.
The judge has a history of controversy in his decisions. Fox News posted Virginia judge who let rapist walk free sentences man in sex assault case to no jail time.
This isn’t the first time Hauler has been in the spotlight for controversial decisions regarding someone accused of violent sexually-based crimes.
Hauler was criticized in 2016 after he rejected the state of Virginia’s request to deny the release of Dana William, who was in prison for raping his ex-girlfriend, WTVR-TV reported. He had also been accused – but not charged – in multiple other rapes.
After his release, police said William strangled to death his ex-wife’s father and abducted her mother in January 2016. Williams fatally shot himself as police were about to arrest him. Investigators later found the body of the mother off to the side of a road.
n 2009, Virginia state Sen. Steven Martin criticized Hauler for having so many decisions overturned, WTVR reported.
“I had serious concerns and did some research and felt like it was best that he not continue on the bench,” Martin said.
So, what gives with Judge Hauler?
I do not know if judges receive much training in understanding sexual assault. However, surely a normal person would know that it is not normal for a man to tie up a 14 year old girl and sexually assault her. Surely any thinking person would view this as a heinous crime. I have to wonder at a person, judge or not, who would treat such an offense lightly. It causes me to wonder what is going on in the life of a person who would make such a decision.
I would hope that the good people of Chesterfield County would demand judgements that would both punish an offender to deter further offenses and also show compassion to a young teen who was seriously harmed.
Judge Hauler should spend some time trying to find his heart.
I’ve been amazed how little time SO’s often seem to get in prison. Then there are the exceptions who in SC end up staying in the “hospital” for “civil” commitment afterwards – which is a unit of a prison. And I’ve been amazed in SC by the huge variations parolees get in SO counseling after getting out of prison. The treatment many get doesn’t seem meaningful by any stretch of the imagination
Time’s up for the Good Ole’ Boy Network of predators & judicial enablers. There are good men who hold predators accountable. They are needed in the judicial branch, obviously.
An apparent byproduct of growing bureaucratic priorities to lower gvt expenditure$ by lessening prison time is plea bargains down to lesser offenses, which in turn puts many in the path for release by being below a certain threshold (e.g. nonviolent offenders). Turnstile justice (sic) appears to be the new normal.
Only in Judge Roy Moore’s world can a 14 year old consent to sex with an adult. Time for some laws to change.
Judges are sometimes unable to understand that a sexual offense has more to do with power and control than with sex. When I supervised a juvenile sex offender treatment program, we sometimes had difficulty getting judges to remand youths at high risk to offend (or reoffend) for treatment because “sex play” was seen as normal. Some judges did not understand the concept of power and control; many did learn after we worked to educate them.
As for the young man in this incident, to know that he had 7 accusations beginning at age 12 with no consequences or treatment shows a system that misunderstands the seriousness of adolescent sex offenders. This is exemplified by ignoring the psychological testing that suggests he is at high risk to reoffend. Such testing, when properly administered and interpreted shows a good rate of accuracy. Yet when these factors are ignored or misunderstood, sexual activity is viewed as “normal” or “exploratory.”
The successful treatment rate for adolescent sexual offenders is high, much higher than for adult offenders. Thus the lack of knowledge by the legal system excuses the actions of younger offenders rather than sending them for treatment which creates the possibility for greater numbers of adult sex offenders.
Luckyforward,
Well said!
I worked in a civil commitment facility for four years, providing therapy to sexually violent persons. It’s frustrating and disheartening to see how the justice system failed this young man, I worked alongside many who needed up in our facility because they were given passes on incredibly deviant behaviors.
IMHO, his behaviors are escalating & I doubt he stops until he is arrested and put in prison. This means there will be more victims. Given there have been multiple credible allegations against him, he would qualify as a sexually violent person under the state of IL; it takes two to make a pattern.
The system has failed this perpetrator and the persons victimized.
They are all watching the same porn…this guy is acting out what he is viewing on the screen. It will only get worse for him and his victims as the returns diminish and he will need more or hard core. Our society is moving toward a porn saturated mind and we’re seeing it on so many levels. We need lawsuits agains the porn producers to show cause and effect of their product. Smoking causes cancer..porn causes sexual attacks. But if the judges are also porn partakers they will never let that happen. The church needs to clean out its porn brain first before we go after the world.
Donna Leland,
I don’t know what anyone else is watching, but I would agree that it seems, to me, that there’s a cultural fixation on what is called sex that is disturbing and robs human beings of other areas of focus that could help to build meaningful genuine lives.
It takes me 20 minutes or more to find something to watch on TV, often I give up and just don’t. I appreciate suggestions of enjoyable and uplifting things available. My sister recommended “Blown Away”. I finished it last night and am still smiling today. We’re going to talk about it later today. I’m looking forward to that conversation!
Do you have any citations for any of this? Violent crime is not the same as cancer. Did this young man or the judge even go to church? Have you watched enough of Those Movies to know that they all show the acts this guy committed? What do you know about the judge’s viewing habits?
TO BE CLEAR: This was a despicable crime, and the judge needs to step down. But this comment does not reflect the information in the original post or the three (3) linked news stories. I found no mention of church involvement.
This is likely going to be unpopular, but I would suspect that these low sentences are based on a number of factors, some obvious, some not.
The obvious one is “what does the statutes and case law say?” For a first offender, the statute may ptovide for a minimal custodial sentence or even probation. Oftentimes, judges are hemmed in by legislative intent.
Now I am going to the infuriating part. These decisions by judges are often influenced by the folliwing factors (definitely not an all-inclusive list and not in any particular order):
* race
* class
* local influence
* patriarchy
* competence of counsel
No one wants to admit that our society is very racist, classist, sexist and defers to “money and influence talk.” But it is, and this has an enormous impact on the justice system.
*sigh* I suspect some of that was operational in this particular instance.
Donna Leland,
I have a more detailed response awaiting approval. Meanwhile, your comment does not appear to reflect any of the news stories cited in the piece.
That anything like the Internet picture meme described below?
I WAS HORNY
(Pic of scuzzy rapist type with smirk on his face)
SO SHE WAS WILLING
And Christians are just as sexually screwed-up as everyone else.
When it comes to the company giving evidence: Many years ago an employee at our firm asked his boss for a character reference letter. The employee had a history of good work and (based on my experience with him) was a good guy. Friendly, hard working, helpful.
The letter was used in court – he had been charged with downloading child porn. And to make matters worse, the letter was made public in the media – lots of egg on the face of our company.
Short story – guy didn’t do jail time but was convicted and banned from the internet and computer access. He was canned from our company because he needed a computer and internet to do his job.
Sometimes the story in the paper doesn’t give the context.
The lesson? Someone asks you for a letter of character reference, you may want to ask why.
How old is Osborn? Other than ‘adult’ did I miss his age in the post? So, not an adolescent then?
And yes, total agreement with those talking about repeat offences & escalation, but the prospects of change in these behaviours do have an age-related element, so the younger he is the more likely change is.
He was 18 or 19 when he committed this crime, and had first been accused of harming a girl when he was 12. Looks like the stories were published in August 2018. I did not find anything newer about him. The judge is listed as currently serving on Ballotopedia, but as retired here: http://www.courts.state.va.us/courtadmin/aoc/djs/programs/jsc/jsc_judges.html
I did not find this judge on web pages for the 12th Circuit Court (Chesterfield County) in Virginia.
Beakerj,
Logan Osborn is listed on the state sex offender registry.
As part of our discussion, let’s remember that sex offending has much less to do with “sex” than with power and control over the victim. Unfortunately, sex is the manner in which the offender chooses to act out his (and her) their needs to express a sense of dominance.
Think about the theological implications of this in terms of all the other persons/situations that Dee presents here . . .
I think a lot of us don’t want to believe how evil people can be. When my parents divorced 40 years ago, and people wanted to know why, they couldn’t believe our home was dominated by domestic violence. There are still a few people in a church I once attended that don’t want to believe a former pastor was a serial adulterer. Then, there is a teacher I know from a Christian school who was caught watching porn at work. They had a no tolerance policy, and he was promptly fired. Everyone felt sorry for him, until he did it again at another job…we think we really “know” people, we want to think the best, and then we realize we don’t really know them at all. However, someone in an office that is supposed to keep the public safe should not be sympathetic to a properly prosecuted offender. If he is an elected, and not appointed,I hope he will be tossed in the next election. That happened to a judge in my area who made a poor ruling on a rape case. He was voted out, and didn’t win when he tried for re-election.
Linn,
Yes.
I no longer assume that Christians, in general, are better than the rest of humanity, in general. I used to think so, though, for a time. And at that time I had good reason to think that.
Linn,
Yes, Christians do need to be vigilant, and we need to get down off our high horse.
This particular story, though, mentions nothing about the religion of the people involved, or of a church, or of anyone’s… preferred viewing.
P.S. As a Christian working for a secular company, I nearly got fired for playing solitaire during my lunch hour, even though my sandwich was right there on my desk.
Judges in Virginia aren’t elected by popular vote. They’re appointed by the General Assembly (state legislature). Circuit Court judges serve eight-year terms.
Donna Leland,
I couldn’t agree more. I often wonder about all the preacher men, hiding the sins of their friends as they rape those under their care. Do they watch pornography together? It seems pornography is the sacred cow the church won’t touch. A gateway to depravity and abuse. I wonder if they’re not all doing it, part of some secret club where they’re all doing the same thing. There doesn’t seem to be any other explanation for the tolerance of such wickedness.
Ella,
Another one of the great “narratives” that Christian leaders push, that “Christians” are more “holly” than all those heathen, secular humanists.. This contributes to the constant exposure of “cover-ups”… Further, some Christian leaders are selling a “product”.. if the product does not make you any “better” than before, why “buy it”?? (Notice, I do not say ALL Christian leaders are selling Christianity, in fact, to me that is one of many litmus tests for me…)
singleman,
🙁
The judge that was tossed in my area was the one who made the bad call on the Stanford swim team member who tried to rape an impaired young woman. The voters took it seriously.
Electing judges is no panacea either, since it’s easy to awaken the wrath of voters, or make baseless claims about a candidate or serving judge.
Whether they are elected or appointed, judges need to answer to the public while they are on the bench, specifically because of cases like this one. But no matter what they do, judges routinely disappoint half of the people in the courtroom. Often they upset both sides.
Better litmus test than Anti-Vaxx or COVID-19 denial.
Though in my experience, most allegedly-elected judges normally run unopposed every time unless they’ve visibly screwed the pooch (like the one recounted by Linn).
Some years ago in my area, a few younger lawyers got fed up with the judges always running unopposed. They put a full-page ad in a local Bar Association journal titled “Want to be a Judge? Here’s How!” that detailed how to file as a candidate for election. A lot of judges in the next election found themselves running against challengers.
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Brilliant!
Some states actually have substitute judges as well, in limited capacities. These are lawyers who are trained and certified to serve as judges. They take on cases when a judge is ill.
Another good limit test is one that Fred Roger’s mother gave him, “Look for the Helpers.” It is admirable, I think, the way he challenged those with media influence to use it responsibly for good.
You know, that’s why I’m glad I have my own personal smartphone (as opposed to the smartphone I have to carry for work purposes). I can surf to my heart’s content (when I’m not trying to herd cats) and nobody at work knows because it’s not on the work network. Especially now, since I’ve been working from home for 2+ months.
I did see a story the other night about a private investigator being hired to track down executives who aren’t working but are instead going out golfing or to the lake. I was like…I can’t even do that when I’m working. I have to sign in and out on an electronic board, I have to log into a minimum of two chat channels and between the hours of 7 am and 4 pm (24 x 7 one week out of 10) I have to be available. I just can’t run off to the lake.
I never learned how to play Solitaire on a pushbutton desk phone, which is what I had at the time. 😉