'Two to Tango' Judge Seeks Recusal From Similar Case

By Steven Gray, Washington Post Staff Writer
Originally published in The Washington Post, March 8, 2000

A Montgomery County judge who told an 11-year-old girl who was molested that "it took two to tango" because she invited a man into her bedroom has recused himself from a case in which a man convicted of rape is seeking a new trial.

Circuit Court Judge Durke G. Thompson signed a petition Monday seeking his recusal from the case of Robert James, a 40-year-old Olney man convicted in November of raping his daughter's drunk 16-year-old friend as she slept.

James's attorney, Barry H. Helfand, filed a motion in December for a new trial on grounds that Montgomery County prosecutors withheld James's confession to his wife that he had sex with the girl but "didn't rape her."

Helfand argued during a hearing before Thompson last month that Assistant State's Attorney Kristen Bender violated her office's "open file" discovery policy by not revealing the information.

But State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler (D) argued yesterday that prosecutors were not compelled to provide that information in James's case because the man's estranged wife was not a law enforcement official. "We can do whatever we want with our internal policy," Gansler said.

Neither Helfand nor Thompson, a Circuit Court judge for six years, was available for comment yesterday.

Thompson's suggestion in January that an 11-year-old girl was partly to blame for her molestation evoked sharp criticism from Gansler and the state's female legislators, who filed a formal complaint against the judge and called for an investigation into his record on sexual abuse and domestic violence cases.

Vladimir Chacon-Bonilla, 23, of Fairfax, was convicted in January of sexually molesting the 11-year-old girl, whom he met on the Internet last summer.