A New Jersey judge has reportedly received criticism from sexual abuse survivor advocates who say he was too lenient to a teenaged suspect in sexual assault allegations, because the suspect came from a “good family” and had a promising future.

According to an ABC News report, a 16-year old boy allegedly raped a 16 year old girl while she was intoxicated and incapacitated at a party.

Judge James Troiano reportedly decided to reject a request to charge the 16-year old defendant as an adult. The criticism came after he justified this decision by saying that the boy had a promising future and a good background.

Overturned on Appeal

This decision was then overturned in the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division. ABC News reports that the appellate division argued that Judge Trojano’s decision represented “an independent assessment of the juvenile’s culpability,” which was  outside of his authority to do, according to the court. 

The Appellate Division said that Judge Trojano should have instead focused on “whether the prosecutor’s consideration of the statutory factors supported the application.”

ABC notes that Judge Trojano had already retired, and was only brought back into the courtroom to hear some family court cases. Anjali Mehrotra, president of the National Organization for Women’s New Jersey Chapter, told ABC News that Judge Trojano’s decision was so incorrect that he should not be in the courtroom again.

Mehrotra told ABC News reporters, “[Trojano’s] already retired. Otherwise, we would be making calls for him to be let go. But there’s absolutely no way he should be in the courtroom again, ever.”

The lawsuit against the teenager was reportedly filed in 2017. He is identified in court documents as GMC. Allegedly, he sexually assaulted a 16-year old girl at a house party. At the time, the girl was allegedly “visibly intoxicated, physically helpless and unable to provide consent.”

GMC also allegedly filmed himself penetrating the girl and sent the video to several friends, with the quote “when your first time having sex is rape,” according to the court papers. The girl allegedly told her mother that “sexual things had happened at the party,” then learned several months laters that GMC had sent the video to his friends.

The victim and her mother launched an investigation several months after the alleged attack, says ABC. The appellate decision said that the first investigating officer in the case “urged GMC and his friends to all delete the video, which apparently they did.”

Then, Judge Trojano reportedly said that he believed that rape typically took place at gun point or with a weapon and involved two or more men. According to ABC News, he went on to say that to move the case to adult court would have a “devastating effect” on his life, and decided to not move the case because GMC “comes form a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well. He is clearly a candidate for not just college but a good college.”

The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) notes that a sexual assault occurs every 92 seconds, highlighting how pervasive the problem is. The resource goes on to say that only five out of every 1,000 rapists end up in prison, perhaps in part because some cases may not be taken seriously. 

According to a report by Huffington Post, women between the ages of 16 and 19 are four times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or other sexual assault, meaning at unfortunately, this instance is far from alone. 

The senate in New Jersey has recently updated its statute of limitations, approved updated sexual abuse laws, allowing victims more time to take legal action against their abusers, as well as a new nondisclosure agreement law that can provide victims more protection.

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