Thousands sign a petition to oust the judge who sentenced the blind child rapist to probation

A petition to remove an Oklahoma judge who sentenced a convicted child rapist to 15 years probation is gaining serious traction online.

Benjamin Lawrence Petty, 36, was recently given a lenient sentence by Judge Wallace Coppedge for a crime he committed in June 2016 while working as a cook at the Falls Creek Church Camp.

The blind Petty is said to have told his 13-year-old victim that he wanted to show her a novel device that he had brought into the camp in order to lure the young girl into his cabin.

Petty then “closed the door to his bedroom, tied the victim’s hands behind her back, pulled down her jeans, pushed her face down on his bed and brutally raped and raped her,” according to court documents.

Petty was arrested after the attack and charged with forcible sodomy, first-degree rape and rape by instrumentality. He pleaded guilty to all three counts in January 2018.

Despite the guilty plea, Judge Coppedge sentenced Petty to just 15 years of probation, in part because of his physical disability.

While Petty will have to wear a GPS ankle monitor for two years and register as a serious sex offender, he will serve no time behind bars for his crime unless he violates those terms of probation, a punishment that has sparked outrage.

In response to the case, Julie Mastrine, a Care2 spokeswoman, said her team decided to launch a petition to remove Judge Coppedge from the bench.

“It was one of those outrageous stories where we thought people were obviously angry about it, so we should put out a petition,” Mastrine told KFOR. “It really just shows that people all over the world want to see justice. Even if it’s not an issue that isn’t directly related to their community, they still have a big heart.”

Currently, Mastrine’s petition has received over 61,000 signatures and is less than 4,000 away from its goal of 65,000.

However, legal expert Joi Miskel told KFOR that it takes much more than a widely supported petition to oust a judge from the bench.

“It’s all well and good to submit a petition online to get some movement going,” Miskel told the station. “It’s not as easy as just snapping your fingers and removing a judge. There’s a lot more to it than that.”

Miskel said that in order to remove a judge, a complaint must be filed with the State Council for Judicial Complaints. From there, an investigator will review the claims and make recommendations to various bodies, including the state Supreme Court.

While Miskel said she personally disagreed with the ruling, she said it’s rare for a judge to go against an agreement when all parties agree.

“In a way, he was just doing his job,” she said sadly. “He agreed with what the state and defense had agreed to. However, I think people are upset about the verdict itself. And he didn’t set that sentence. That was Oklahoma State.”