Alaska Judge Censured for Saying Some Girls “Asking For It”

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Summary: Nome, Alaska’s only Superior Court Judge has been censured for crude comments made towards victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. 

Like that drunk perverted uncle at your family reunion, Judge Timothy Dooley of Nome, Alaska seemed to creep people out with his inappropriate comments. Numerous complaints were filed against him for misconduct, and last week, an Alaska judicial committee censured him and encouraged him to undergo sensitivity training. He will also be paired with a mentor judge to guide him.

  

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The disciplinary hearing was held in Anchorage on Dec. 10. The original complaint was brought about in May, and the State Commission on Judicial Comment said they had received multiple complaints prior. All of the incidents occurred in the span of May 2013 to September of 2014.

Dooley, the only Superior Court judge in town, admitted to violating the state’s code of judicial conduct with his odd comments about rape and domestic violence. For instance, in 2013, during the conviction of a man who sexually abused a 14-year-old girl, he said that this was not a case of a girl “asking for it.”

Dooley went on to compare the teen victim’s virtue with that of women who did “ask for it.” “There are girls out there who seem to be temptresses, and this does not appear to be anything like that,” he said, apparently not joking.

In another instance in 2013, his perverted uncle persona emerged again when he said during sentencing, “Has anything good ever come out of drinking other than sex with a pretty girl?”

When questioned about that comment at the hearing, Dooley said his comment came out differently than what he intended.

“In the last couple weeks, I’ve learned that people thought I meant to get the girl drunk, so you can have sex with a girl who’s drunk — which is, of course, a crime,” Dooley said. “I didn’t mean that.

Basically, (I meant to) get yourself drunk so you have the false courage to ask a girl to dance or whatever.”

Still weird, Dooley.

Dooley admitting to making the comments and apologized.

“Those are my statements. I don’t dispute them,” Dooley said. “I probably caused grief for some victim, perhaps. I’m also regretful that I caused trouble for the staff at the Nome court. They don’t deserve to have a judge who goes off the high dive and lands on the rocks.”

Dooley’s words landed him on Jezebel’s list of Big Time Small Time Dicks, a column devoted to local scandals that make small time folks’ lives miserable.

Dooley was represented by William Satterberg, Jr. Satterberg said that Dooley did not mean to hurt people’s feelings. He was just overwhelmed being the only judge in town and that he was ignorant due to lack of training.

While Dooley may have just been a man unaware of his acceptance of rape culture, he was also in a position of power to perpetrate it. Mera Matthews, special counsel to the commission, said despite his ignorance, his comments were harmful to victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

“We’re doing everything we can to combat and stem the tide of the pervasive problem of domestic violence and sexual abuse in our state. Nobody would argue that it’s anything other than a scourge,” Matthews said. “And we accept as true that Judge Dooley didn’t intend his comments as anything other than condemning that, but the statements do make light of sexual assault. They do make light of domestic violence.”

Source: http://www.ktoo.org/2015/12/14/nome-judge-admits-to-misconduct-will-undergo-sensitivity-training

Source: http://theslot.jezebel.com/alaska-judge-censured-for-comments-about-temptresses-wh-1748347735