Lawrence Keith Wright slipped a drug in a young woman’s drink at a party that left her helpless but aware of the vicious assault he then perpetrated on her person. For that vile act judge Sandra McLean gave the miscreant nine short years. Then to ensure that his victim would feel completely violated she suspended the sentence:
OROVILLE — A judge Thursday handed down a nine-year suspended prison sentence to a Chico rapist.
Butte County Superior Court Judge Sandra McLean said the only reason Lawrence Keith Wright, 31, was being placed on probation, was that it’s his first criminal conviction and will require him to undergo sexual offender treatment.
In an emotional statement to the court before sentence was pronounced, the 20-year-old victim wept as she recounted how Wright had carried her into a bedroom and twice sexually assaulted her, after giving the intoxicated woman a pinkish colored drink during a party at a friend’s Chico home last August.
“You stole something that was only mine to give,” the brown-haired woman sobbed. Though Wright had contended through his attorney that the sex was consensual, last month he pleaded no contest to felony charges of rape by use of drugs and sexual battery.
Both the probation officer and prosecutor had recommended imprisonment.
The victim told Chico police she had gone with a friend to a party, where she consumed alcohol. She said she started feeling sick and went into the bathroom, after downing the pink colored drink Wright had given her.
At his sentencing Thursday, the young woman told Wright: “I remember everything; I remember you raping me and not being able to do anything about it.”
[…]
McLean sentenced Wright to the mid-term of six years in prison on the rape charge, plus three years for sexual battery, but ordered both terms stayed pending successful completion of five years of probation. The judge, who also ordered 200 hours of community serve (sic) plus undetermined amount of restitution tot he victim, warned Wright that any violation of his probation, including failure to complete sexual offender treatment counseling, would result in the nine-year prison sentence being imposed.
Probation and community service. That’ll teach him. Why shouldn’t a man in his early 30s be given a second chance? It’s not like by 31 a person has the ability to take responsibility for his actions, right?
Here’s a 31-year-old man at a party with a 20-year-old girl, there’s something wrong with this story already. What kind of person in their 30s wants to be around drunk 20-year-olds? Beside date rapists that is?
The Judge here is acting like she caught a teen joy riding. This is a man in his 30s who drugged and raped a young girl. He’s dangerous, he’s evil and he’s unlikely to change his ways.
Sex offender treatment doesn’t work, as Lilo has already shown. Punishment, at least, provides the victim with a sense of compensatory justice and while the rapist sits in prison other women would be safe. I guess that’s not an issue for judge McLean. A letter to the Oroville Mercury-Register from Clark Drown sums up what’s wrong with Wright’s sentence quite nicely:
Lawrence Wright’s sentencing for rape by Judge Sandra McLean is an insult to the judicial system. Using lack of priors and required treatment as reason for the lenient sentence, McLean disregarded recommendations of the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, Probation Department and the victim in this case, who asked for the maximum prison sentence. She has been further violated — once by Wright, and now by McLean.
This case reflects a new trend in rape cases, and is a purposeful, sophisticated crime, using a “date rape drug” with a paralyzing agent, leaving the victim fully conscious and aware but paralyzed, unable to fight the against the assault, and forever imprinting the victim with memories of violence and invasiveness. Every rape is a tragic event. Wright’s nonacceptance of responsibility (no contest plea) to gain probation should not be allowed in this case. A prison sentence includes a required 90-day psych evaluation at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, which both he and society would benefit from.
Wright’s sentence is an insult to the victim, the justice system and those who work within it. Rape is rarely a one-time occurrence.
My opinion is based on a 30-year career in sworn and non-sworn law enforcement, with convictions of sexual offenders of all types.
McLean should face serious review at election time and this case should be appealed to the State Appellate Court.
Wright must certainly be laughing all the way to the therapist’s office.
— Clark Drown, Chico
Hear, hear! Let’s hope the voters remember this case when this judge is up for re-election.