A judge annuls a conviction for rape considering that the young man "had enough punishment" with five months in prison

By Marlene Lenthang -

An Illinois judge's decision to reduce the sexual assault sentence of an 18-year-old, saying the 148 days he has already spent in jail awaiting trial is punishment enough, has sparked anger and outrage.

Adams County Judge Robert Adrian found 18-year-old Drew Clinton guilty of one count of criminal sexual assault in a bench trial in October.

That charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 4 years in prison.

The teenager had been denounced by Cameron Vaughan, 16, who explained that Clinton sexually assaulted her at a graduation party on May 30.

But the judge announced during his sentencing hearing on January 3 that he would not send the teen to jail, thus changing his original verdict.

Cameron Vaughan. NBC

“Clinton has served almost five months in the county jail, 148 days.

For what happened in this case, that's punishment enough," he said, according to a transcript obtained by the Herald-Whig newspaper.

The judge noted that Clinton had just turned 18 two weeks before the incident and had no criminal record.

“By law, the court is supposed to sentence this young man to end up in the Department of Corrections.

This court will not do that."

Thus, he decided to rule that the Prosecutor's Office "had not been able to prove his case," despite his initial conviction to the contrary. "This court is going to reconsider its verdict, it is going to find the defendant not guilty," said the judge, "the defendant will be released."

The decision came after Clinton's attorney, Andrew C. Schnack III, filed two post-trial motions asking to have the mandatory sentencing provisions declared unconstitutional and asking for a finding of not guilty, according to the court transcript.

The young woman who denounced Clinton told local station WGEM that she ran from the courtroom to cry in the bathroom upon hearing the decision.

Vaughan recounted the alleged assault to the newspaper: "I woke up at my friend's house with a pillow over my face so I couldn't be heard and Drew Clinton inside of me."

“I asked him to stop several times and he didn't.

I finally got up off the couch and pushed him off of me, and he jumped up and started playing video games like nothing happened."

During the hearing, the judge rebuked the parents at whose house the party where the assault took place was held for letting the minors drink and swim in the pool in their underwear.

Assistant State Attorney Anita Rodriguez said she was shocked by the decision, adding that

"My heart is broken for the victim," he told the Herald-Whig.

“It was a very difficult testimony for her.

He did a lot for his healing process, but now he's back to where he started." 

The young defendant's attorney said post-trial motions are commonplace.

“Most of the time, but not all the time, they are rejected.

This is one of those times when the motion was granted and that is what has the whole world in an uproar," he told NBC News, sister network of Noticias Telemundo, on Thursday. 

He added: “Adrian is a very good judge.

I know you are being accused of harming this victim or preventing her from recovery, but you granted five motions that the state filed.

She protected the girl with her failings as much as she could."

He argued that his client should have been found not guilty on all three counts of sexual assault at the bench trial, in which he was found not guilty on two counts and guilty on one.

The Quincy Area Network Against Domestic Abuse said in a statement that it is

.

“Adrian's verdict and comments send a chilling message to other rape victims that their behavior, not the rapists', will be judged.

Shame the victims, free the rapists," the statement said.

"This sentence reinforces the fact that the standards for women have always been impossibly high, while they are impossibly low for men," he concluded.