How is this judge still employed?


When last we left the strangely popular field of pseudo-physiology and rape favored by wingnut commentators even their peers were begging them to STFU. Now this idiot judge in California wants you ladies to know that unless your vagina is shredded, it’s not real rape, or something:

CBS News — Johnson made the comments in the case of a man who threatened to mutilate the face and genitals of his ex-girlfriend with a heated screwdriver, beat her with a metal baton and made other violent threats before committing rape, forced oral copulation, and other crimes. … Johnson, a former prosecutor in the Orange County district attorney’s sex crimes unit, said during the man’s 2008 sentencing that he had seen violent cases on that unit in which women’s vaginas were “shredded” by rape.

“I’m not a gynecologist, but I can tell you something: If someone doesn’t want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down. The body will not permit that to happen unless a lot of damage is inflicted, and we heard nothing about that in this case,” Johnson said.

I too am not a gynecologist, and yet, somehow, it’s clear as a bell to me that rape does not have to involve ‘shredding a vagina’ to qualify, in fact it doesn’t even have to involve a vagina. Say for example, a rapist holding a gun to a person’s head and ordering them to endure or perform whatever act desired, or just cracking their skull with the gun butt. This clown almost certainly got this nonsense from somewhere other than legal theory or medical journals.

There’s a big contingent of fundamentalists in the US who fancy themselves pro life — as long as we’re talking about blastocysts anyway. They’ve created an entire shadow field of medicine not unlike the shadow geology and biology underlying Biblical literalism. In this authoritarion swamp there is no such thing as birth defects or complications that threaten the mother’s life, arguably their greatest success has been redefining the onset of preganancy, i.e., what many doctors define as implantation into the uterine lining, to mean fertilization, when Man’s divine magic sperm meets Eve’s slutty egg.

But the mad dash to equate microbes and humans hits an obstacle in the case of rape, so they’ve simply decided there is no such thing as a rape pregnancy. Todd Akin’s comments earlier this year came from that burgeoning pseudo-science. It’s not clear where this judge got his crazy notions from, but that same fevered swamp would be the first place I’d look. 

The only good news in this debacle is the judge is getting his ass kicked by his fellow legal eagles. It’s still scary to think there could be many assholes like this sitting in judgement on cases involving rape, or anything else.

Comments

  1. jnorris says

    Therefore, unless his fat ass is shredded and bleeding, it isn’t anal rape. Your honor, do you want to test that theory?

  2. grumpyoldfart says

    I’ll bet he’s not getting much of an ass-kick. I’ll bet he keeps his job, and his pension. I’ll bet he doesn’t even get a written warning to lift his game.

  3. F [disappearing] says

    Before I even read this, I have to say that this is a question best asked of some sizable proportion of extant justices. Some should be asked with a hammer.

  4. F [disappearing] says

    Yep, with a hammer, this one. The vaginagates close (everyone has that instant fight-or-vaginisimus reflex, right?), and if that doesn’t work, you won’t get pregnant because vaginavenom. So it is written in the book of I’m Not a Gynecologist, But….

    I’ve seen violent cases in which men’s brains were “shredded” by “thinking”.

    I’m not a neurologist, but I can tell you something: If someone doesn’t want to reason using logic from a factual foundation, the brain shuts down. The brain will not permit that to happen unless a lot of education is inflicted, and we heard nothing about that in this case.

  5. anubisprime says

    This judge is still employed because the folk that vote and support him are all morons, and there seem to be more of them then rational folks…simple like so!

    Most of them no doubt drool to ridiculous fairy stories and fine but when a court appointed judge tries to pretend made up and invented ‘facts’ about rape are encapsulated in law, and his erstwhile fans nod dumb empty heads in agreement and if he is finding a judgement on that premise in a rape case, then I would suggest that American society has deep and fractured issues in a society where reality in any subject is but a distant aspiration.

    BECAUSE IT IS FUCKING INSANE!

  6. kermit. says

    Presumably this means that a man can’t have been mugged (or raped) unless there is significant medical damage. I will bet that there have been a number of such cases brought before him. Is he suggesting that women are more manly than men, who whimper and hand over the wallet at the mere sight of a knife or pistol? Or maybe the alleged mugging victims really wanted it, and were just too ashamed to admit that they freely hand over their money to any good looking fella lurking in the alleys.

    Sigh. I can imagine, I think, something of what it’s like to be a sociopath, but I can’t imagine being willing to say something this stupid in public.

  7. bobo says

    http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/12/13/abortion-doesn%E2%80%99t-unrape-you-following-election-disaster-anti-abortion-activists-l

    “Abortion Doesn’t Unrape You:” Following Election Disaster, Anti-Choice Activists Look to Re-frame Discussion of Rape

    While abortion-rights groups seek to expose lawmakers and candidates who oppose abortion even in the case of rape and incest, anti-choice advocacy groups are trying to figure out how to sell the argument that abortion should be banned.

  8. bobo says

    Damn, saw this after I posted:

    http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/12/14/california-judge-reprimanded-rape-comment-has-history-doubting-victims

    The alternative news source also reported that this was not Johnson’s only instance or victim shaming or picking light sentences for sexual assailants. Johnson also openly ridiculed a second victim of a different attacker in court, and reduced another perpetrator’s felony to a misdemeanor so he would not be subject to the state’s “Three Strikes” law.

  9. anne mariehovgaard says

    So… if you hand over your wallet, it isn’t robbery? This gun I’m pointing at you is irrelevant to the case.

Leave a Reply