Going to say I disagree and we can leave it at that
A former Baylor University fraternity president who was accused of rape will not serve any jail time or be forced to register as a sex offender after a judge accepted a plea deal he had been offered by Texas prosecutors,
according to news reports.
Jacob Anderson, 23, was charged with four counts of sexual assault after he was accused of raping a 19-year-old woman at a 2016 party thrown by Phi Delta Theta, the fraternity chapter of which he was president, at the school in Waco, Tex., according to the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Earlier this year, the McLennan County district attorney’s office offered him a plea deal that quickly became the subject of bitter outcry from the victim, her family and many others following the case.
The district attorney’s office dismissed the four counts of sexual assault in exchange for a lesser charge of unlawful restraint, according to news reports. And it recommended that Anderson serve three years of deferred adjudication probation, pay a $400 fine and go to counseling in lieu of jail time,
according to news reports. The deferred adjudication means the
charge could eventually be dismissed if he does not violate the terms of his probation.
Seemingly lenient sentences for rape are not unheard of, and Anderson’s case underscores the difficulty in proving and prosecuting many sexual assault cases. Punishments are typically lessened and the level of crimes are downgraded as a result of plea agreements. Cases such as Anderson’s have caused swift and widespread outcry from victims, their families and communities.
Even in some instances in which prosecutors successfully proved to a jury that a crime has been committed, sentences have been highly criticized. Among the most notorious is that of Stanford University sex offender Brock Turner, whose six-month jail sentence after a sexual-assault conviction prompted nationwide outrage and the recall of the judge who imposed the punishment. A jury had
convicted Turner of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on the edge of campus.