From the Oregonian, Portland December 27th....A 27-year-old Beaverton woman who spent just under a year in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy at the Hillsboro Boys & Girls Club will have to serve another five years under an Oregon Appeals Court decision released Wednesday.
A three-judge appeals panel decided that Washington County Circuit Court Judge Nancy W. Campbell was wrong in not imposing the full 75-month Measure 11 sentence on Veronica Lee Rodriguez, a Boys & Girls Club coordinator who was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse in 2005....
...In September 2005, a jury found Rodriguez guilty of one count of first-degree sexual abuse for pulling a boy's head into her breasts while rubbing his temples and running her fingers through his hair in the downtown Hillsboro club's snack room....
This is a perfect example of what is wrong with mandatory minimum sentences. The image that prompted folks to vote the minimum sentences into law was that of "lenient judges" letting heinous criminals off with a "slap on the wrist", something that would have been uncommon to say the least. What voters have achieved is a system that fails to allow judges to recognize individual circumstances. In this case, for example, the woman is going to serve over six years in prison for something I believe she should not have even been indicted for.
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