Is rape of a prostitute not a rape?

I was surprised to read this story about a prostitute who made an appointment with a man by using criagslist in Philadelphia. When she arrived at the home she was raped at gunpoint by the man and several of his friends. The case was taken to court and the judge involved threw out the rape case and only allowed the man Dominique Gindraw to be charged with Armed Robbery For Theft of Services. There was outcry from several groups however Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni still won a retention election which occurred weeks after her ruling. Blogs run by Prostitutes or "sex workers" as they call themselves tried to organize an online "vote no on retention" campaign against Judge Deni but failed in their efforts to remove her.

The accuser testified that she initially agreed to have sex with Gindraw and a friend of his in exchange for money, but that Gindraw refused to pay her, held a gun to her head and forced her to have sex with several men, according to a transcript of an Oct. 4 court hearing. "She consented and she didn't get paid. … I thought it was a robbery," Judge Deni told the Philadelphia Daily News. The reduced charges against Gindraw are still pending in the Municipal Court, but the district attorney's office has refiled the rape charge at a different local court, the Court of Common Pleas, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.As I stated in the first sentence of this blog post, I could not believe this. I have every belief that the Court of Common Pleas will find that these men are all guilty of Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault and more.

The editors of our local newspapers are often pushing their opinion that magistrate and municipal judges should be lawyers. I have not usually agreed, having personally known several judges who were not lawyers but were good judges. In what is often called the peoples court I think common sense and someone who is closer to the "common man" will do better. On the other hand I know some bad judges who are lawyers. What do you think about this case and should judges be lawyers? Do you think Judge Deni was a lawyer? Yes or No ? Post your comment first on whether you think she is a lawyer or not and then click here to find the answer and see if you were right.