We’ve got so much time for
‘ It Is my honour and privilege to sentence you,’ decreed Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina last week, sentencing former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar to 175 years in jail for abusing athletes in his care. ‘I just signed your death warrant.’
Aquilina made Nassar listen to the statements of no fewer than 163 of his victims, all of whom got to look him in the eye and describe the trauma he had inflicted. Nassar had written to the judge, requesting not to hear the statements. Aqulina’s reply, ‘Nothing is as harsh as what your victims endured for thousands of hours at your hands.’
It’s easy to hold Aquilina up as a sassy, Gif-able ‘kween’ (a video of her tossing Nassar’s letter aside went viral) – and we too have fallen for her trademark raven bouffant, arched brows and style that exudes even beneath robes. But her masterstroke was to make one man sit and
listen to what he did. Those women took the power back from him. And if there’s one thing an abuser hates, it’s that. Then, she threw out the rulebook and made him pay. Judge Aquilina, we salute you.