California Judge Says Victims' Bodies Can Prevent Rape, Sparks Outcry

A shocking scientific discovery was made in California today: Rape victims' bodies can prevent rape. Or so one judge from the state claimed.

Superior Court Judge Derek Johnson said a rape victim "didn't put up a fight" while she was assaulted, and that if someone doesn't want sexual intercourse the body, "will not permit that to happen," CBS News reported.

Thursday the California Commission on Judicial Performance voted 10-0 to impose a public admonishment, saying Johnson's statements were inappropriate and a breach of judicial ethics.

"In the commission's view, the judge's remarks reflected outdated, biased and insensitive views about sexual assault victims who do not 'put up a fight.' Such comments cannot help but diminish public confidence and trust in the impartiality of the judiciary," wrote Lawrence J. Simi, the commission's chairman.

Johnson made the disparaging comments while trying a man who had threatened to mutilate the face and genitals of his ex-girlfriend with a hot screwdriver, "beat her with metal baton and made various other violent threats before committing rape, forced oral copulation, and other crimes," USA Today reported.

The woman reported the criminal threats the following day but reportedly didn't report the rape until 17 days later.

A former prosecutor in the Orange County district attorney's sex crimes unit, Johnson claimed during the man's sentencing in 2008 that he had experience handling violent cases of rape with the unit and typically women's vaginas were "shredded" by rape.

"I'm not a gynecologist, but I can tell you something: If someone doesn't want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down. The body will not permit that to happen unless a lot of damage is inflicted, and we heard nothing about that in this case," Johnson said.

Not everyone else was so certain. The commission says Johnson's statements - that in order for someone to be a victim they must fight back - are his opinion and not the law. California hasn't required rape victims to prove they resisted attack or were prevented from resisting due to threats since 1980.

Johnson has since relented, apologizing to the commission, admitting his comments were inappropriate. He claims he only made the comments because he was frustrated during an argument with a prosecutor over the defendant's sentence. According to Johnson, law didn't authorize the prosecutor's request for a 16-year sentence. Johnson rejected that assessment, and sentenced the man to six years instead, because that what the case was "worth," he said.

Johnson's controversial words echoed polarizing statements made earlier in the year by Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who claimed that "even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen."

Mourdock has since backtracked from his statements that God preordains rape, stressing that his debate comment was misconstrued and that he does not believe God intends for anyone to be raped.

"What I said is God creates life. As a person of faith, I believe that," Mourdock said after the debate. "Does God want people raped? Of course not."

Mourdock said his position on abortion is that he believes the only exception should be in instances where the mother's life is in jeopardy.

Statements made in August by Missouri state representative Todd Akin caused a similar stir.

When asked in an interview with a St. Louis TV station whether women who became pregnant due to rape should have the option of abortion, Akin said: "Well you know, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, well how do you, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question. First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

"But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child," he added.