Woman Gets No Jail for Sex Abuse

(Urbana, Illinois) In November 2006, a 20-year-old woman, Kristen Buffington, was found guilty of aggravated criminal sexual abuse by a seven-woman, five-man jury. The case involved an incident in September 2005 when Buffington picked up two young boys, took them to her home and had sex with one of them, a 13-year-old.

Yesterday, Champaign County Judge Jeff Ford sentenced Buffington to probation.

He also ordered her to engage in therapy for survivors of sexual assault -- the woman testified at trial that she had been raped previously. She also must be evaluated for depression and get appropriate treatment, stay employed and not use any drugs or alcohol. He also ordered her to initiate proceedings with the appropriate government agency to get child support for her 4-year-old child.

"It appears that any time something bad has happened in your life, it's because of alcohol or drugs," Ford told Buffington.

He applauded her for already obtaining Family Life Skills counseling even though it wasn't court-ordered. He also noted that the sex offender evaluation of Buffington showed that she was at "low risk" to reoffend.

Consequently, given that she was depressed, used alcohol and drugs and was ostensibly raped at some point in the past, Judge Ford ruled leniently. Hopefully, the judge didn't exhaust his Kleenex budget when contemplating Buffington's case.

As a saving grace, however, Judge Ford ordered Buffington to register as a sex offender.

By the way, I predicted this outcome in my previous post. Just for drill, I would also speculate that if the 13-year-old had to appear before Judge Ford regarding this case, that little bastard would be sent to juvey lockup until the age of 21 for taking advantage [sniff, sniff] of a depressed, drug-using alky who had been supposedly raped sometime in the past.

Tip: Don Morgenstern