(credit: Jupiter Images)
WINONA, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota man convicted of entering a locked house and sexually assaulting a woman who was sleeping has been sentenced to home monitoring and probation.
Winona County Judge Mary Leahy says she departed from sentencing guidelines because Joel Meyer Epstein is amenable to probation. The 27-year-old Plymouth man will spend 90 days on home monitoring and serve five years of probation. Epstein said he took drugs and drank alcohol the night he assaulted the woman in Winona in 2008.
The Winona Daily News says Epstein earlier pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree burglary.
(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
37 Comments
Probation? For sexual assault? Can someone forward the rest of the story to me? I’d be particularily interested in the part that makes sense.
March 3, 2011 at 7:45 am | | Report comment
Does this sex offender look like Justin Bieber?
March 3, 2011 at 1:34 pm | | Report comment
No one finds your comment funny, so grow up,
March 3, 2011 at 7:53 am | | Report comment
wow i got probation for shoplifting once, who knew i coulda got action
March 3, 2011 at 8:02 am | | Report comment
Think about this, in Texas, you get 30 years to life, but in Minnesota you get probation. What’s wrong with this picture?
March 3, 2011 at 8:03 am | | Report comment
So in 90 days (probably less because of good behavior) some other girl will be assaulted by this guy. Why do we even have a court system?
March 3, 2011 at 8:10 am | | Report comment
what the hell kinda judges do we have here in minnesota how woul;d she like someone to do that to her ??? well maybe she would who knows.
March 3, 2011 at 8:12 am | | Report comment
Now we know why they passed the MN Concealed carry Law and why one needs to have the right to bear arms. Hell – this state seems to cut free more nuts and bad guys than any other in the nation. You have 1, I repeat just 1, chance in most cases to protect yourself.
Great job Judge. Another great job done by the system
March 3, 2011 at 8:12 am | | Report comment
Drugs and alcohol are not excuses. That would be like saying ” I’m sorry that I got a DWI, but my excuse was that I was drinking…” With the system here in MN, no wonder all the criminals are coming here from Chicago. They get to abuse the EBT system and get probation for their heinous crimes!
March 3, 2011 at 8:12 am | | Report comment
hand cuff the basterd and stappel his nuts too a tree stump and tell him not to bethere in morning.thats what they should do. mabe that will make them people stop.
March 3, 2011 at 8:21 am | | Report comment
good god whats wrong with the thinking of oru court system here in mn? horribly sad.
March 3, 2011 at 8:42 am | | Report comment
The disparity in sentencing in crimes like these is impossible to comprehend.
March 3, 2011 at 8:44 am | | Report comment
Hi Denny, hows bubba doing good I hope
March 3, 2011 at 8:51 am | | Report comment
If that criminal ever reoffends in the near future, effort should be made to remove that judge from the bench and have her law license revoked
March 3, 2011 at 8:50 am | | Report comment
I agree but we go doing that we may only have a handful of judges left in the whole state.
Someone above spoke of Texas and sentences and while I believe they are tougher usually as a whole I also know of cases were they have been just as wimpy. My brother is in law enforcement in Houston, previously here also in Duluth before the cold scared him off for good. lol
He says it can often be the same old BS even there. It can gretty discouraging for a cop.
March 3, 2011 at 9:08 am | | Report comment
Who was the judge, he or she needs to go. Like our supreme court, time to get common sense back and them out.
March 3, 2011 at 9:07 am | | Report comment
Plainly stated in the article.
You also are correct in comments.
The crazy part is that what we think of as common sense doesn’t often applly to law. That is the craziest part of the whole thing.
March 3, 2011 at 9:11 am | | Report comment
i have the guys facebook page if anyone wants it
March 3, 2011 at 9:09 am | | Report comment
Do you have his address?
March 3, 2011 at 9:17 am | | Report comment
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1643631306
March 3, 2011 at 9:13 am | | Report comment
That sentence is a crime against humanity. The judge should be sentenced to some job where she would have to work for a living. She has no honor and does not deserrve to be addressed as your honor.
March 3, 2011 at 9:14 am | | Report comment
If this woman who was assaulted has any male family members in her life – They need to grow a pair and see to it that justice is done. I know if this had been a family member of mine I’d welcome him being on home monitoring, he’d never hurt anyone ever again!!!!
March 3, 2011 at 9:15 am | | Report comment
Nice precedence they have set here. Simply go out and sexually assault someone while under the influence, and you basically get a slap on the hand. I also find it interesting that the judge Mary Leahy is playing the role of psychiatrist in that she feels the perpetrator is amenable to probation. How is she going to feel when this loser assaults someone else?
March 3, 2011 at 9:51 am | | Report comment
This is unreal. I got more time than that for soaping my teacher’s window’s at holloween. Maybe the guy was hung like a horse. lol
March 3, 2011 at 9:57 am | | Report comment
lets all send this pig a message on face book, cindy has his face book page.
March 3, 2011 at 10:01 am | | Report comment
This judge should be tossed out of the system.
March 3, 2011 at 10:05 am | | Report comment
Or maybe they should have this judge go pay this criminal a visit at his house… When he’s drunk.
March 3, 2011 at 12:40 pm | | Report comment
She should be canned. I do not support the budget cuts to state workers, but I now know of one person that should be let go from the system that we could save money on. He will be in jail, just wait and see.
March 3, 2011 at 10:17 am | | Report comment
First, the woman gets assaulted by a man……then she gets assaulted by the court system. Way to go, Minnesota!
March 3, 2011 at 10:20 am | | Report comment
The judge needs to go. He sexually assulted a woman. There is no excuse for that. The man needs some real jail time. I can not imagine how horrible this must be for his victim. She can’t feel safe, protected or like she recieved any justice at all.
March 3, 2011 at 11:06 am | | Report comment
besides the sexual assault the article says he entered a locked house…breaking and entering…he should have alot o jail time
March 3, 2011 at 11:50 am | | Report comment
If Judge Mary had been the victim, you can be sure probation wouldn’t have been an option.
March 3, 2011 at 1:00 pm | | Report comment
The State of Minnesota is using sex offense laws to practice Nazi Eugenics.
That’s why an overweight 60 year old massage therapist goes to prison for 11 years, but if you are young attractive like Brianna Broitzmann and Ashton Larson, the court system slaps you with a gross misdemeanor and a few months in jail for a worse sex offense.
March 3, 2011 at 1:57 pm | | Report comment
Wonder how the judge will feel when it is his daughter, wife, sister, or grand daughter ???
March 3, 2011 at 3:01 pm | | Report comment
The judge is a woman. What a slap in the face for all women who have been abused. Fire the Judge.
March 4, 2011 at 3:15 pm | | Report comment
“Affirmative Action” woman judge feels sorry for the poor boy? Is that it? He looks like a nice boy? That’s why women shouldn’t be judges. Think about it before you call me a whatever.
March 4, 2011 at 8:20 pm | | Report comment
You can get 5 years probation for selling marijuana.. WEED!?!?! just a plant, and this guy gets 5 years probation too and hes a sexual predator?!?!?! i’m furious
July 22, 2011 at 11:24 am | | Report comment