In 2020, Utah Third District Court Judge Douglas Hogan made headlines when he sentenced admitted pedophile Douglas Saltsman to only 210 days in jail. Douglas Saltsman pleaded guilty to possessing 13,000 files of child pornography and bestiality. Outraged by the light sentencing, an online petition to remove Judge Hogan from the bench was launched. Today, the petition has just shy of 200,000 signatures.

This past week, Judge Hogan made headlines again for another light sentencing that can only be described as a colossal miscarriage of justice.

One evening in 2017, a 14-year-old Utah girl was at a sleepover. While there, she was communicating via SnapChat with three men over the age of 21. The men picked her up from the sleepover, and plied her with alcohol to the point where she was not able to retain a state of consciousness. While she was incapacitated. they took turn turns raping her. As though that weren’t enough, while laughing, they took video of the assaults. At least four videos were recorded and introduced into evidence.

All three men charged in this heinous act pleaded guilty. What was their sentencing? Forty-eight months of probation. Probation. What could it have been? At least 15 years in prison.

All three were ordered to be immediately released from jail. Two of the three defendants are South African nationals, and are to be referred to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), but according to sources, deportation is unlikely.

When we heard of this, we were furious. I don’t know about you, but we’re tired of being furious at incident after similar incident. Where is the deterrent? Who is protecting our daughters? Who is protecting the most vulnerable members of society? Today, we are hearing so many mixed messages.