An Idaho judge who said a man who raped a 14-year-old girl could be released on probation if he agreed not to have sex outside of wedlock also linked the case to a breakdown of morality in the social media age, adding: "If I had my way, I would eliminate the internet."
The unusual requirement that a convict remain celibate as a condition of probation received widespread attention this week, after segments of Judge Randy J Stoker’s ruling were made public.
"I will tell you, sir, that if you are ever placed on probation to this court, a condition of that probation will be you will not have sexual relations with anyone other than who you are married to, if you're married, period," the Twin Falls district judge said in the ruling.
However, additional details of the judge’s ruling, contained in a transcript of the hearing obtained by the Guardian, reveal how the judge delivered what amounts to a sermon on modern-day morality, in which he connected the 14-year-old victim’s rape to “the social media system”.
The extra-marital celibacy requirement issued by the judge is highly unusual, but has some statutory basis in conservative Idaho, where premarital sex is still, technically, a crime, although the statute banning “fornication” is rarely, if ever, enforced.
Twin Falls prosecuting attorney Grant P Loebs said the sex offender’s compliance with the no-sex rule would be tested via polygraph.
“The probation officer whose job it is to make sure you’re not a threat to the community will ask you . . . have you been doing this or this or this?” he said.
“That’s the way those conditions are checked. Not by spying on someone.”
Treatment programme
The judge said in court that he could have sentenced Cody D Herrera to life in prison for raping the 14-year-old girl in 2015. He had been communicating with the girl via Facebook.
Instead, he sent the 20-year-old to a treatment programme run by the Idaho prison system.
If Herrera completes the programme within a year, he will be placed on probation.
But if he violates the conditions of his probation, the judge said, he will be sentenced to as much as 15 years in prison.
In handing down his striking judgment last month, Stoker imposed the condition of celibacy outside of marriage, and also railed against what he suggested was today’s hook-up culture.
He questioned Herrera’s level of remorse and noted his proclivities - a taste for pornography, having a number of sexual partners, and fantasies of sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Modern-day technology, the judge added, was at fault.
“I have seen dozens, if not hundreds of sex cases since I’ve been on this bench,” he said.
“Our society has come to a point of, I don’t even know how to explain it, you know? I am 66 years of age. When I was 19 years of age, the sexual proclivities of young people wasn’t anything, anything like I see today.
“I think it is a direct consequence of the social media system that we have in this country,” the judge continued.
“I can’t tell you how many times I have seen these cases, ‘How did this happen?’, ‘Well, I met somebody on social media’.”
The judge conceded that Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and other sites might not be the direct cause of all the sexual assault cases he has presided over in the deeply conservative Gem State.
However, he said “the vast majority” of such cases originate online.
“I can’t change that,” he said. “If I had my way, I would eliminate the internet, and we’d all have better lives.
“But I can’t do that either. It also says something about, I guess, the level of morality in this country. I can’t change morality. People are going to do what they’re going to do.”
Guardian service