A New Jersey judge has been rebuked for showing leniency towards a 16-year-old boy accused of rape at an alcohol-fueled pajama party because he came from a ‘good family’ and was destined for a top college.
Judge James Troiano, 69, refused to allow the teenager to be tried in adult court, saying the claims were not a ‘traditional case of rape’ and that the boy had not shown ‘calculation or cruelty’.
The retired judge, who is asked to fill vacancies on the bench, even complained that the alleged victim had not been told about the ‘devastating effect’ that a full adult trial would have on the boy.
But the judge’s decision has now been overturned by a higher court in highly critical 14-page ruling warning Troiano of any bias towards privileged alleged perpetrators.
A New Jersey judge has been rebuked for showing leniency towards a 16-year-old boy accused of rape because he came from a ‘good family’
Some of the judge’s comments in which he praised the alleged rapist’s academic performance
That means the case could now be moved from family court to a grand jury where the boy would be treated as an adult.
According to prosecutors, the boy – named only as G.M.C. in court documents – had assaulted the girl, also 16 and called Mary to protect her identity, at the party attended by 30 teens in New Jersey in 2017.
After both had been drinking, he allegedly filmed himself raping her in a darkened room, then shared the footage with friends, sending a text saying: ‘When your first time having sex was rape’.
According to court documents: ‘While on the sofa, a group of boys sprayed Febreze on Mary’s bottom and slapped it with such force that the following day she had hand marks on her buttocks.’
The girl, was left vomiting and with bruise marks, and was driven home by a friend’s mother, documents show.
When she told her mom she worried ‘sexual things had happened at the party’ her family pursued criminal charges against the boy.
Prosecutors say the 16-year-old alleged victim was ‘visibly intoxicated, physically helpless and unable to provide consent’, and applied for the boy to be tried as an adult.
The prosecutor wrote: ‘At the time he led Mary into the basement gym, she was visibly intoxicated and unable to walk without stumbling.
‘For the duration of the assault, the lights in the gym remained off and the door was barred by a foosball table. Filming a cellphone video while committing the assault was a deliberate act of debasement.’
‘This was neither a childish misinterpretation of the situation, nor was it a misunderstanding,’ they argued.
‘[His behavior was calculated and cruel. This level of criminal sophistication warrants the elevation of this case via involuntary waiver to the adult criminal court.’
However, Judge Troiano disagreed and even suggested prosecutors should have explained to the girl how pressing charges would destroy her alleged attacker’s life.
Describing how he imagined the ‘traditional case of rape’, he said there were generally two or more men involved, ‘either at gunpoint or weapon’, and mentioned ideas such as ‘manhandling’ and an ‘abandoned shack’.
In a two-hour ruling in Monmouth County last year the judge also discussed how the girl had been intoxicated, saying she ‘doesn’t remember much of what happened’.
On the boy, he said: ‘Do I believe that it shows in any way a calculation or cruelty on his part or sophistication or a predatory nature? No, I do not.
‘This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well.’
The teen allegedly filmed himself raping with the girl in a darkened room, then shared the footage with friends, sending a text saying: ‘When your first time having sex was rape’
Troiano, 69, refused to allow the teenager to be tried in adult court, saying the claims were not a ‘traditional case of rape’ and that the boy had not shown ‘calculation or cruelty’
Mentioning the boy’s role as an Eagle Scout, the judge continued: ‘He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college. His scores for college entry were very high.’
He also dismissed the boy’s text messages as ‘a 16-year-old kid saying stupid crap to his friends’.
As a result, the judge ordered the boy to be tried as a juvenile – but a New Jersey appeals court has since reversed his decision.
Giving their reasons, the senior judges said Judge Troiano had gone off course and ‘decided the case for himself’.
‘That the juvenile came from a good family and had good test scores we assume would not condemn the juveniles who do not come from good families and do not have good test scores,’ they said.
In 2004, Judge Troiano imposed an order banning people in a courtroom from talking about a case where two Montclair High School football players – a 17-year-old senior and a 15-year-old junior – were accused of raping a female class mate. The charges were later dropped in the highly publicized case.