June 22, 2000 - Judge Warned for Scolding Sex Victim
CROWNSVILLE, Md. (AP) A state judicial commission has issued a warning, it's mildest form of reproach, to a judge who suggested that an 11-year-old girl was partly to blame for being sexually molested.
The Maryland Judicial Disabilities Commission dismissed a misconduct complaint against Montgomery County Circuit Judge Durke G. Thompson, who had scolded the girl by saying "it takes two to tango". He later apologized.
The 11-member commission issued a "dismissal with warning" earlier this month, said Thompson's attorney, Paul Kemp. Thompson, a circuit judge for six years, did not return telephone messages Wednesday.
The judge's remarks came Jan. 4, at sentencing of Vladimir Chacon-Bonilla, 23, who pleaded guilty to a second-degree sex offense and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Prosecutors said the girl told police she had sex with Chacon-Bonilla, whom she met on the Internet. The girl's family complained that the incident had ruined their lives, but the judge said the victim was "not free of fault" because she had given the defendant "some invitation" into her home. "I think the old adage that it takes two to tango is true here," he said.
The National Organization for Women, a county victims' assistance agency and a coalition of female state legislators lodged the complaint with the judicial commission.
Whose fault is it?
Moderator: Available
Whose fault is it?
Grrrr 
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lori macleod-doyle
- Posts: 232
- Joined: Tue Aug 03, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: lr.sackville n.s. canada
Whose fault is it?
It takes two to tango??????? 
It's no wonder that many rapes are never reported.
Lori M-D
It's no wonder that many rapes are never reported.
Lori M-D
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Jake Steinmann
- Posts: 1184
- Joined: Fri Apr 30, 1999 6:01 am
- Location: Newton, MA
- Contact:
Whose fault is it?
Remind me never to ask a woman to tango...
I can't express the emotions this brings up for me properly. I have a nine year old sister, and if something like that happened to her, and the judge told her that...
GRRR....
How did this moron get into the justice system?
Jake
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Defeat is worse than death. You have to live with defeat - Seal Team Slogan
I can't express the emotions this brings up for me properly. I have a nine year old sister, and if something like that happened to her, and the judge told her that...
GRRR....
How did this moron get into the justice system?
Jake
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Defeat is worse than death. You have to live with defeat - Seal Team Slogan
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Gilbert MacIntyre
- Posts: 191
- Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2000 6:01 am
- Location: Sydney, NS, Canada
Whose fault is it?
I have heard this type of response before in dealing with child abuse. It came from a Bishop defending some Catholic Brothers who abused the children in their care at Mount Cashel, in Newfoundland, Canada.
I believe these men have dirty little secrets of their own. Anyone who could possibly blame the children for the abuse they have to endure at they hands of some sicky, may very well be trying to justify an earlier action in their past.
If they didn't act on their feelings, they have still realized that those feelings have entered their mind at one point in time. Isn't it nice to be able to rationalize that, by saying there are kids who like sex. How do these people keep the powerful postions they have after making such hurtful and damaging remarks.
Gilbert.
I believe these men have dirty little secrets of their own. Anyone who could possibly blame the children for the abuse they have to endure at they hands of some sicky, may very well be trying to justify an earlier action in their past.
If they didn't act on their feelings, they have still realized that those feelings have entered their mind at one point in time. Isn't it nice to be able to rationalize that, by saying there are kids who like sex. How do these people keep the powerful postions they have after making such hurtful and damaging remarks.
Gilbert.
