Last month, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, about an hour south of Glen Ridge, Judge James Troiano denied prosecutors’ motion to charge a 16-year-old boy accused of sexual assault as an adult. The boy had filmed himself having sex with an intoxicated 16-year-old girl, who could not stand up straight and had slurred speech; shortly after the video was taken, she vomited, and woke up the next morning with bruises all over her body. The boy later sent the video to friends with the text, “When your first time having sex was rape.”

…The accused are usually young. They are usually white, a fact that was particularly relevant in the wake of Ehlke’s verdict, as one black lawmaker pointed out that the judge had sentenced a 16-year-old black offender to 20 years in prison before sentencing Cook. And they are usually middle-class and fairly well-educated, to enough of a degree that it’s not impossible to imagine the (usually white, usually male, usually well-educated) judges perhaps seeing a younger version of themselves taking the stand. But in justifying these light sentences, judges rarely cite these factors. Instead, they point to the defendant’s lack of criminal record, or their sterling grades, or their history of volunteer work within the community. They express their concern over the impact a lengthy prison sentence would have on these young men’s delicate characters, and they place the burden solely on the accusers to recuperate from the trauma of their assault, urging them to stay kind, stay strong, stay positive. Above all else, they express a desire to protect the defendant’s potential.

…One wonders what sort of potential is so great, so fragile, so worthy of protection, that it would be prioritized over that of the young woman who has survived a violent sexual assault. One wonders what that young woman could have accomplished, had she not been told at an early age that her welfare and her future prospects were secondary to those of her assailant. One wonders just how much a good boy’s potential is really worth, when it so clearly comes at the expense of that of the young woman he has harmed.

…These boys …and those like them, probably never had all that much potential to begin with.

Judge James Troiano Ruling: Why We Protect Accused Teen Rapists – Rolling Stone

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