QUINCY (WGEM) – In an open letter published Tuesday, Quanada (Quincy Area Network Against Domestic Abuse) Executive Director Megan Duesterhaus called for the Illinois Eight Circuit Court to remove Judge Robert Adrian from the criminal docket and a case in which he recently reversed his own conviction of a man accused in the criminal sexual assault.
“A judge who doesn’t trust his own decisions should not be allowed to sit in judgement,” the letter said.
The letter also asks the court to restore the conviction of the man that Adrian had reversed.
The letter stated the original decision to convict the man was “rendered through a fair, three-day bench trial. Adrian vigorously disagreed with the four-year mandatory sentence, saying ‘five months in jail is plenty of punishment.’ A convicted rapist should not go free because a judge disagrees with the law.”
The letter continued, “Adrian publicly blamed and shamed everyone but the perpetrator — the victim for drinking alcohol and swimming in underwear, the parents for allowing the party. We must end the chilling message sent to so many rape victims and their perpetrators — shame the victims, free the rapists — so that survivors can finally trust the judicial system to provide the fair treatment they deserve. ”
Also on Tuesday, Adams County State’s Attorney Gary Farha told WGEM he is speaking on Wednesday with the chief deputy director of the Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor’s office to determine what steps, if any, Farha’s office might take to seek reinstatement of the original verdict.
During a bench trial in October, Adrian convicted 18-year-old Drew Clinton of one count of criminal sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl at a graduation party on May 30.
At sentencing in January, however, Adrian reversed himself following a pair of motions by Clinton’s attorney, saying that a mandatory minimum sentence imposed by state statute would be inappropriate.
According to transcripts from the hearing, Adrian said the time Clinton had served in the Adams County Jail was enough.
“For what happened in this case, that is plenty of punishment,” Adrian said.
During the hearing, Adrian also had harsh criticism for parents at the party where the alleged assault happened, lambasting them for letting minors drink and swim in the pool in only their underwear.
Last Tuesday, Quanada issued a statement blasting Adrian’s decision and his comments during the hearing.
“The verdict and Adrian’s comments send a chilling message to other rape victims that their behavior, not the rapists’, will be judged,” the statement read. “Shame the victims, free the rapists. This judgment reinforces the fact that standards for women have always been impossibly high while they are impossibly low for men,” the statement read.
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