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Utah judge calls rapist 'extraordinary, good man' during sentencing

Utah judge calls rapist 'extraordinary, good man' during sentencing
Posted at 11:54 AM, Apr 15, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-15 15:03:38-04

A woman says she is shocked by a Utah judge's comments in which he called a man convicted of sexually assaulting her a "good man" during his sentencing hearing.

Julia Kirby said Friday that Judge Thomas Low appeared to care more about the person he was convicting than he did about the victims. She plans to file an official complaint against him in the hopes of getting him removed as a judge.

"The court has no doubt that Mr. Vallejo is an extraordinarily good man," Low said during the sentencing. "But great men sometimes do bad things."

A jury found Vallejo guilty of 10 counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of object rape.

Kirby said she was 19 when Keith Vallejo groped her multiple times.

She has given The Associated Press permission to publish her name to show the judge that she will not let him get away with his comments.

The incidents happened in Provo, a heavily Mormon area of Utah that is home to Brigham Young University.