Six-month sentence sends poor message

DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Daniel P. Guerin’s Jan. 27 sentencing decision in the case of James W. French was an affront to victims of child sexual assault. The judge had the power to impose a full seven-year sentence upon a man who repeatedly abused and terrorized a young girl. Yet even after hearing the girl’s father plea that she is terrified and lives in fear of being attacked again, Judge Guerin somehow reasoned that six months was appropriate, citing the perpetrator’s “accomplished life and lack of a prior criminal record.”

What message does this send to the brave kids who summon the courage to tell and to the fear-stricken children who have not yet come forward when decisions like this come from a judge who was former supervisor of the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Unit and received the Illinois State Bar Association’s Big Hearts for Young Heroes Award?

This child and her father are to be applauded for doing everything in their power to protect other children from being harmed by this perpetrator. The uninformed public, which misconstrues these crimes as acts motivated by sexual gratification, needs to know the reality, that the motivation of these sick individuals is to gain power over a weaker person, sex being their means of control.

Such trauma inflicted upon a young person during their most critical time of physical, mental and emotional development imposes a sentence on the victims — and their families — to years of recovery work and expense.

Only through social change will we eradicate the blight of child sexual assault. When the very people victims must rely upon to punish their perpetrators fail them, progressive change is thwarted and all of society suffers.

Marymae Meyer

Lombard