As Democrats continue to try to defend President Joe Biden’s nomination of the first black female for the Supreme Court, more disturbing details of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s record of leniency in “sadomasochistic” child-porn cases have emerged, including instances in which Jackson apologized to perpetrators for having to follow sentencing guideline statutes, which she stated were “substantially flawed.”
“Over and over, the records reveal, Jackson made excuses for the sex fiends’ criminal behavior and cut them slack in defiance of investigators and prosecutors — and sometimes even probation officers serving her court — who argued for tougher sentences because the cases were particularly egregious or the defendants weren’t remorseful,” the New York Post, which obtained transcripts of Jackson’s sentencing hearings, reported.
The cases in question were tried by Jackson from 2012 to 2021, when she served on the bench as an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
And the cases are graphic and disturbing enough to warrant a warning to readers: This is disturbing, difficult stuff to read.
In July 2020, Cristopher Michael Downs received from Jackson the lightest sentence allowed after he was convicted of “distributing images and videos of infants being sexually abused.”
Jackson heard evidence that Downs had posted 33 graphic photos to a private online chat room called “Pedos Only,” including, court records reveal, images of a naked little girl as young as 2 years old, another of adult males raping “a prepubescent female child,” and a 10-second video of “a prepubescent female lying in a bathtub and with an adult male inserting his penis into her mouth.”
In the chat room, Downs bragged, “I once fooled around with my 13-year-old cousin.”
Following his conviction, Jackson stated that she knew Downs was at “risk of reoffending.”
Still, even with the amount and substance of the porn he distributed, she declined to enhance Downs’s prison time, claiming that such enhancements were “outdated” and “substantially flawed.” Instead of the nearly six years prosecutors asked for, Jackson imposed the statutory mandatory-minimum sentence of 60 months, and then credited Downs for the time he’d spent incarcerated going back to his arrest for the crimes in October 2018. In the end, Downs was given just 38 months, or just over three years.
He is scheduled for release in December.
In the April 2021 case of child porn distributor Ryan Manning Cooper, prosecutors described the crimes as “on the more egregious or extreme spectrum” of child pornography.
Jackson disagreed, stating, “I don’t find persuasive the government’s arguments concerning why they think that this is a particularly egregious child pornography offense, which means I struggled to find a good reason to impose a sentence that is more severe in this case.”
“Among the more than 600 images prosecutors told the judge [Cooper] traded were sexually explicit pics depicting bondage of infants and toddlers,” The Post reported. “Prosecutors also busted him with a video of a ‘pre-pubescent boy being penetrated anally and orally’ by an older male.”
But Cooper’s family wrote letters to Jackson, calling him a “kind, hard-working, dependable, loving” man, and Jackson believed them.
“I have no reason to doubt those representations,” Jackson said, before turning to Cooper. “There are going to be a lot of restrictions that the law places on you because you are a convicted sex offender, and you’re going to need the support of these people during this next phase of your life,” she advised him.
Again, Cooper got less time than what the prosecution recommended.
Jackson has stated that she has developed her “own analysis of child pornography offenses” as a result of “outdated” sentencing guidelines for child pornography that she believes are “too severe.”
In 2013, Jackson sentenced Wesley Keith Hawkins to three months in a lower-security facility — complete with special safety protections normally reserved for imprisoned cops — after the young, gay, black man was convicted of posting videos of boys as young as 11 years old being raped by adult men to YouTube.
Jackson felt the two years prosecutors wanted Hawkins to serve were unnecessary and the more than 600 images of child porn he possessed “don’t signal an especially heinous or egregious child pornography offense.”
The two-year sentence, she argued, didn’t take into account the felon’s “future potential.”
“This is a truly difficult situation,” Jackson told Hawkins. “I appreciate that your family is in the audience. I feel so sorry for them and for you and for the anguish that this has caused all of you.”
Even the slap on the wrist she dealt Hawkins was cause for Jackson to feel guilt.
“I also feel terrible about the collateral consequences of this conviction,” she said, adding that “sex offenders are truly shunned in our society, but I have no control over the collateral consequences.”
And the “collateral consequences” of Jackson’s sentencings are something every American needs to be worried about.
In 2010, Leo Weekes was convicted of raping his 13-year-old niece, the Daily Mail reported.
He landed in Jackson’s court in February 2014 for failing to register as a sex offender.
Jackson sentenced him to 12 months, but with time served, Weekes was out in July 2014 after only five months in prison.
In June 2015, Weekes got his sister-in-law drunk, attacked her, and sexually assaulted her. Though Weekes was arrested, the victim chose not to press charges after Weekes allegedly paid her $2,500 to drop the allegation.
In February 2017, following multiple probation violations, Weekes once again found himself in front of Jackson, and once again Jackson chose leniency, imposing a 24-month sentence that partially overlapped with punishment he received in connection with the assault on his sister-in-law.
“This case is yet another example of information coming to light after the nomination hearing concluded because of the Democrats’ rushed vetting process,” a Republican Judiciary Committee aide told The Post.
Mike Davis used to serve as chief counsel for nominations to former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and he described Jackson as an “activist judge.”
“She’s clearly not a mainstream judge,” Davis told The Post. “After she heard details of sex torture of young kids, including babies, she nonetheless disregarded the official sentencing guidelines and prosecutors’ recommendations to give rock-bottom sentences in eight of eight cases.”
According to Davis, Jackson seems “more concerned about the well-being of pedophiles than the safety of your children — and thanks to her, they may be living in your neighborhood right now.”
Ketanji Brown Jackson is expected to be confirmed for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court later this week.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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