Idaho judge says rape is ‘a direct consequence of the social media system’

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.

However, additional details of the judge’s ruling, contained in a transcript of the hearing obtained by the Guardian, reveal how Stoker 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 extramarital celibacy requirement 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.”

Stoker said in court that he could have sentenced Cody D Herrera to life in prison for raping the 14-year-old girl in 2015. Instead, he sent the 20-year-old to a treatment program run by the Idaho prison system. If Herrera completes the program within a year, he will be placed on probation.

But if he violates the conditions of his probation, Stoker said, he will be sentenced to as much as 15 years in prison.

In handing down his striking judgement last month, Stoker imposed the additional 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 the young man’s proclivities – a taste for pornography, an astounding number of partners, and fantasies of sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Modern-day technology, he added, was at fault.

“I have seen dozens, if not hundreds of sex cases since I’ve been on this bench,” the jurist 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,” Stoker 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.’”

Stoker 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. But 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.”

According to court documents, Herrera and the victim met in 2014. He was 17 at the time. The girl told him she was 16. They hung out with friends, went to the mall, and communicated via Facebook. But when her mother found out about the relationship, she tried to put a stop to it.

The mother called Herrera and Herrera’s mother. She explained that her child was only 14, too young to have a boyfriend. But Herrera and the girl continued their online relationship.

On 2 March 2015, Herrera snuck into the girl’s bedroom, ostensibly to watch a movie with her. He began to fondle the girl. She asked him to stop. He then raped her without wearing a condom.

Not long after, according to the affidavit of Twin Falls police detective Benjamin Mittelstadt, Herrera heard a rumor that the girl was pregnant. He called her mother to find out, in a conversation that was later downloaded from the woman’s phone.

“During this conversation Mr Herrera admitted to knowing that [the girl] was underage,” Mittelstadt said, “and stated he did not want to be stuck behind bars being raped and stabbed for what had happened.”

The girl’s mother told Stoker in the Twin Falls courtroom that her family fell prey to a manipulative “predator”. Herrera did not just rape her daughter, the woman said, but he also harassed and threatened the young girl and her friends and relatives.

“It was his intent from the beginning to take what he wanted from my 14-year-old child – her virginity – and he stayed around until he got it from her,” she told Stoker. “Cody will never understand what he has done to our family. Cody robbed her of her innocence. He destroyed the child left in her. This can never be returned.”

Dan Brown, Herrera’s defense attorney, told Stoker that his client “comes before this court young and somewhat naive in many respects”. His fondness for pornography might be “unsavory”, Brown said, but “it certainly hasn’t hurt anyone”.

Herrera pleaded guilty to one felony count of rape. By his own admission, the judge said, Herrera had “34 sexual encounters with separate individuals” while still in his teens and his attitude was, “well, I’m going to use young children for sexual gratification”.

“I have never, never seen that level of sexual activity between a 19-year-old, in this court system, and I’ve been doing this for 15, 16 years,” Stoker said. “My view of life is that what you do in the past is a good indication of what you’re going to do in the future.”

Source: The Guardian