welcome back. in crime and punishment tonight, the rape sentence in montana that has calls for a judge to resign. how did the teacher get sentenced to just 30 days in jail after he admitted to repeatedly raping a student? he was 49 at the time, she was 14. and why would a judge say that the victim seemed older than 14 and that she was as much in control of the situation as he said the adult authority figure who raped her? the victim has committed suicide, and now prosecutors are looking for a way to fight the sent tense. randi kaye reports. reporter: it all began in 2007, when this montana high school teacher raped sha reese morales. then a 14-year-old student. teacher stacey rambold, who was 49, was charged the following
judge baugh shocked the courtroom when he ordered rambold to serve 15 years, with all but 30 days suspended. rambold sentenced to one month in jail. shareece s mother wanted justice. she blames rambold for her suicide. the judge made matters worse when explaining his reasoning, saying morales was as much in control of the situation as the teacher. judge baugh also said the girl seemed older than her chronological age. chronological age? who is he to decide that she s older than her chronological age? she was 14 chronologically, and that s what is relevant. two days later, the judge apologized. i m not sure just what i was attempting to say at that point, but it didn t come out correct. what i said was demeaning to all
year with three counts of sexual intercourse without consent. what happened next was even more tragic. just before her 17th birthday in 2010, shareece morales took her own life. a mother lost her daughter, and prosecutors lost their star witness. so prosecutors cut a deal. they would forego jail time if he admitted to one of the rape charges, completed a sex offender program, and avoided any unsupervised contact with mi minors. but rambold has unsupervised contact with minors, so prosecutors refiled rape charges against him. r rambold was in court for sentencing on monday.