County Supervisors to Call for Judge in Controversial Child Rapist Case to Step Down

By PAUL ANDERSON

Three Orange County supervisors are expected today to call for the resignation of Superior Court Judge M. Marc Kelly for giving a man who sexually assaulted a 3-year-old girl a sentence less than half the legal minimum.

The judge found that the defendant sodomized the toddler but that it could have been worse.

The mandatory minimum sentence under state law for the sexual assault would have been 25 years to life. However, Kelly ruled it would be cruel and unusual punishment and, therefore, unconstitutional to sentence Kevin Jonas Rojano-Nieto to a life sentence.

Bryan Scott, organizer of an effort to recall Kelly, is scheduled to be joined at an afternoon news conference where Supervisors Todd Spitzer, Shawn Nelson and Lisa Bartlett will call for Kelly’s resignation.

Kelly has declined to comment to Patch through a spokeswoman for Orange County Superior Court.

Judge Shaves 15 Years from Mandatory Sentence, Noting Rapist of 3-Year-Old Didn’t ‘Intend Harm’

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told City News Service his office intends to appeal the sentence.

“We still have to wait for the transcripts (of Friday’s sentencing hearing), but everything about the case indicates it’s clearly an illegal sentence and one that is appealable,” Rackauckas said.

Kelly is a former prosecutor who has been a judge since 2000. He was a basketball standout at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta in the 1970s, a non-scholarship player at Notre Dame and played professionally in Ireland.

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• City News Service