Rapist ordered to serve 250 hours community service at rape crisis centre
Sir Young assaulted a fellow student at his high school in Washington
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Your support makes all the difference.A judge is believed to be reconsidering a probation condition that ordered a convicted rapist to undertake 250 hours of community service at a rape crisis centre.
Sir Young, 20, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl at the Booker T. Washington high school in Dallas, where they were both students at the time of the offence in October 2011.
He had faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to Dallas News.
He was sentenced to 45 days in prison and five years on probation by Dallas County District Judge Jeanine Howard, who ordered him to start 250 hours of community service at a rape crisis centre upon his release as part of a plea deal.
The centre accepts volunteers, but has a strict policy on refusing anyone with a criminal record.
“There’s just so many problems with that,” Bobbie Villareal, Executive Director of the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Centre, told ABC affiliate WFAA8.
“First of all, we would worry about our client safety and well-being, the appropriateness of them having any kind of contact with survivors — even if it was a past victimization. Just having a criminal defendant in the office could be a triggering effect for many of our clients."
Ms Villareal said she had been contacted by the probation department on Tuesday to ask if Young, 18 at the time of his offence, would be able to serve his community order there, but she refused their request.
“We have a strict policy on our volunteers,” Ms Villareal said. “They can have no criminal backgrounds whatsoever.”
As part of his sentence, Young must also serve two days in jail every 4 October, the anniversary of the rape, while he is on probation.
Judge Howard’s court coordinator, Jerry Barker, told WFAA8 that “the judge and the probation department are modifying his conditions.”
Ms Barker added: “They’re going to come up with a different order for him to do his community service somewhere else.”
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