White Football Player Rams Coat Hanger Up Disabled Black Kid's Rectum, Gets Zero Jail Time

“I committed one of the most heinous crimes you could only imagine in your wildest nightmares, and I didn’t even have to do jail time.”

That’s a story John R.K. Howard will be able to tell for the rest of his life, after a judge ruled that he’d get just 3 years probation and some community service for kicking a hanger up a disabled black kid’s rectum.

The story immediately made national headlines: Howard and at least one other student set up the victim in the football locker room. One of them hugged the 17-year old boy to restrain him, and another shoved a coat hanger into his anus. Then Howard, who was 18 at the time, kicked the hanger further in.

The victim is African American, one of only a handful living in the small Idaho town. He is also disabled. But neither of these factors seemed to have played into the ruling, which could have put Howard, technically an adult, in prison for the rest of his life.

Instead, Howard went home after the judge’s ruling. The victim’s parents couldn’t even listen to the entire session—they stormed out in anger before it was all over.

“It’s absolutely preposterous that this kid should walk away with apparently no punishment whatsoever,” according to the attorney representing the victim’s family. And many people agree with him – an online petition to remove the judge who levied the ruling has over 150,000 signatures.

Attorneys for Howard made a wide variety of arguments that effectively undermined the case that their client sexually assaulted the victim, or that the assault was a hate crime—this in spite of the fact that there were several reports of Howard bullying the victim in the past.

The family of the victim has also filed a $10 million lawsuit against the school; that case is still pending. Meanwhile, the victim has been checked into an assisted living facility as he’s tried to commit suicide multiple times since the incident.

Horrible.