Another judge is in the spotlight after athlete avoids prison in indecent assault case
A Massachusetts judge is being criticized for sentencing a high school athlete to two years of probation for the indecent assault of a classmate who was unconscious after a drinking party.
The judge is Thomas Estes of Palmer District Court, report the New York Times and the Republican. He sentenced 18-year old David Becker on Aug. 15 after the youth pleaded guilty to indecent sexual assault on a person over age 14 and acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him of a second count, Masslive.com reports. Prosecutors had recommended a two-year sentence.
Prosecution would have been difficult, a spokesperson for the Hampden District Attorney’s told the Republican. Becker had been accused of penetrating two unconscious classmates with a finger, so there would have been no DNA evidence. One of the victims gave a witness statement opposing jail time, and the other was reluctant to take part in the proceedings.
After the sentence, an online petition sought Estes’ removal as a judge. According to the Times, his sentence “reignited a debate on white privilege, leniency and judicial discretion.”
The criticism follows another high-profile case in which a recall effort was launched against a California judge who sentenced a champion Stanford swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman after a fraternity party,
Estes is a former public defender and patent litigator who was appointed to the bench in 2014.
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