The sky’s the limit!
High school wrestler and football player Logan Michael Osborn, then 18, met a 14-year-old girl at a high school play in April 2017. After the curtain fell, they went for a walk down a secluded path, where Osborn overcame the young woman, tied a belt around her neck and hands, and performed a sex act. Osborn’s defense attorneys argued that it all was consensual, but consensual or not, she was still only 14, making this statutory rape.
In September 2017, Osborn pleaded guilty to sexual assault, saying that his conduct was the result of “poor judgement.” The judge sentenced Osborn to 10 years in prison with eight years suspended on his conviction of having carnal knowledge of the girl without use of force, a felony. Osborn also had to register as a sex offender. In January, however, Chesterfield (Virginia) Circuit Judge T.J. Hauler stayed the two-year term, saying he wanted to review the case further,and this week, he revealed the result of his review. The entire 10-year sentence is now stayed, meaning that Osborn will receive no prison time at all.
At last week’s hearing, Judge Hauler asked to hear “some positive things” about Osborn so James Trent, a foreman at an electrical company where he now works, commended Osborn’s work ethic and performance, saying that “sky’s the limit” for his future. The negative things? Well, he does appear to be a habitual sexual predator, if that counts. He has been accused of engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct with girls seven previous times, including when he was 12. In that case, Osborn was charged with grabbing the genitals of another student. (The case was dismissed.)
Just as the attack on the 14 year-old girl does not appear to be out of character for Osborn, now free as a bird, questionable jurisprudence is not out of character for Judge Hauler. In 2016, he rejected Virginia’s request to deny the release of Dana William, who was in prison for raping his ex-girlfriend. William had also been accused, though not charged, of other rapes. But Hauler, perhaps feeling that the “sky was the limit” for the prisoner’s future, let him loose anyway, whereupon he strangled his ex-wife’s father and abducted her mother. Williams fatally shot himself as police closed in. Investigators later found the body of the mother.
Oopsie! Well, every decision can’t be a gem.
In 2009, before the Dana William debacle, Virginia state Sen. Steven Martin pronounced Hauler unfit for the bench because so many of his decisions were overturned.reported. “I had serious concerns and did some research and felt like it was best that he not continue on the bench,” Martin said at the time. Luckily, no official action against Hauler was taken.
Luckily for Virginia rapists and Logan Osborn, that is.
One has to wonder if Osborn would be in prison today if he were black. What am I saying? I don’t wonder at all. Do you? Of course he would. But if you are thinking about kneeling on a football field about the injustice of this, please note: the injustice is not that a black Logan Osborn would be in prison, but rather that the white one isn’t.
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Sources: Fox News, Richmond Times Dispatch
Ethics Alarms 
Why do you assume Osborn would be in prison if he were black? Dana William was black.
The victim was white. William had already served time in prison. No, I do not believe that a black defendant in statutory rape case in Virginia where the girl was white would receive such blatant leniency.
Fair enough.
I don’t care what color the 18 year old is. The judge is an idiot and the perpetrator belongs in prison. Not sure if his skin color would have changed judicial idiocy. Let’s all agree it’s the judge and the perp who have issues requiring correction.
Come on, the kid plays the football. Give him a break.
Why can’t sentencing be decided by plebescite!
Constitution.
Just have a constitutional convention to decide on the sentence.
There. Problem solved.
Judges are out of touch with the people and can not be trusted with sentencing.
This judge is pretty much out of touch with reality…we call that “psychosis”.
Stuff like this is why mandatory minimums get enacted. Prior to Oregon passing the mandatory minimum law, 1st degree rape average sentences were under 18 months. That fact was highly touted in the debate over one of the countries first mandatory minimum / truth in sentencing laws in the country. Predatory guys would rape DOZENS of women over the years. Now it’s 8-1/3 for the first offence, 15 for the second, and life for the third. Oregon doesn’t have a specific three strikes law per se, but the law list the mandatory sentence as life for murder, rape, armed robbery, etc.. for a person with two prior class A felonies. Parole is out, as is suspended sentences for felonies.
As you have said previously Jack, Oregon is weird. It is over-run with progressives, and has become a democrat run state. In many ways it is following the California path. Yet when it comes to crime and self defence, it is very different. The mandatory minimum law has been challenged twice, and the last time the repeal attempt failed with over 90% of the vote to retain it.
Same events, but committed here, would net Osbone 8-1/3 years. Ditto for Brock Turner.
Yet when it comes to crime and self defence, it is very different.
Not really, Matthew. Those progressives are out to get those who commit crimes against women in particular. Riding their hobby-horse. They haven’t tightened the laws particularly in any other case.
Hey, the sky IS the limit!
Hollywood producer, CEO, celebrity, even President!
I’m siding with the judge.
10 years in adult prison for consensual sex is really unfair. Yes, it was with a minor, but a 4 year age difference is not that big considering they were both in a relationship in the same school.
I would understand one or two years, but 10.. That’s how much people get for armed robberies and 3rd degree homicides…..
You don’t see any appropriate middle ground between 10 years and nothing? The actual sentence was two years, with 8 suspended. And the findings were that this was NOT consensual…you know, that tying up part?
Bill Clinton was never convicted…
That flew right over my head…
Given my mood today, I am not surprised.
Obscure link (in my brain) between Isaac’s comment and here, and it was not nested correctly.
In that, any President mentioned these days MUST be Trump, so the Bill comment was a nonsequitur
Oh well…