While it might feel a bit wrong to start off the long weekend with this kind of rancor, news of a man named David Wise was too infuriating not to be shared.
Wise, a 52-year-old Indianian, was recently convicted on six felony charges, including systematically drugging and raping his wife in her sleep for three years. Marion Boardman (the now, thank Jesus, ex wife) recalls mornings with half-dissolved pills in her mouth and powdery residue clinging to the bottom of her drinking cups. Oh, and he recorded his violations of Boardman on his cell phone; that's how she discovered what he'd been doing to her.
While Class B offenses (rape and deviate behavior) are typically rewarded with six to 20 years in jail apiece—meaning the judge could have handed him 80 years in the slammer—Marion County Superior Court Judge Kurt Eisbruber sentenced Wise to no jail time whatsoever.
Ah, the justice system at work. Makes you proud doesn't it? You must be curious what punishment this twisted fuck of a man did receive. Eight years of GPS-monitored home confinement. And yes, he can leave for work everyday and no, he's not required to receive any therapy whatsoever.
Adding insult to white-knuckle injury, Judge Eisbruber encouraged Boardman to forgive her husband, something she justly called "unfathomable." On the day of the sentencing, Eisbruber said:
I hope that you can forgive him one day, because he’s obviously struggled with this and struggled to this day . . . when people are really struggling, I just offer that out . . . I just hope that they find peace.
Perhaps the most troubling thing about this whole depressing, sickening mess is that Judge Eisbruber operated completely within the bounds of the law; B felonies require no time in prison, not even a requirement for home detention. Eisbruber's decision was unpopular and unusual but by no means illegal, surfacing the undeniable misandry and paternalistic essence of our legal system.
It’s a sentence that people disagree with, but as long as judges are following the statute, there’s no grounds for an ethics complaint. — Joel Schumm, law professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, L.A. Times
Did we mention Eisbruber will be running unopposed for re-election this November? That's right. There's only 16 judicial candidates—and lucky us!—16 Superior Court openings.
Last but not least—and I'm more than willing to admit I could be mis-reading the legal code here—but in Indiana, the laws seem pretty fucking explicit about drugged rape being Class A:
(b) An offense described in subsection (a) is a Class A felony if:
(1) it is committed by using or threatening the use of deadly force;
(2) it is committed while armed with a deadly weapon;
(3) it results in serious bodily injury to a person other than a defendant; or
(4) the commission of the offense is facilitated by furnishing the victim, without the victim's knowledge, with a drug (as defined in IC 16-42-19-2(1)) or a controlled substance (as defined in IC 35-48-1-9) or knowing that the victim was furnished with the drug or controlled substance without the victim's knowledge.
Isn't this exactly what happened to Boardman?! Or is there some further definition of "drug" that isn't defined here?
Happy Friday?
Image: ThinkStock
