The county in which I live, Hennepin County Minnesota, elected a Soros prosecutor last year, and she has been letting criminals run wild ever since she took office.

An example? Consider the case of Devin James Hultin, a 22-year-old man who began raping a relative who at the time was 9 years old. He was convicted only of rapes that took place while he was a minor, but his victim insists the sexual abuse took place when he was an adult as well.

The rapes began when he was supposed to be babysitting her.

Over the objections of his victim’s family, a 22-year-old Robbinsdale man was spared prison and instead ordered to serve six months in custody after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a girl seven years younger than him when they were minors.

Devin James Hultin received the sentence following his conviction in Hennepin County District Court of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a presumptive sentence of 12 years. The abuse started in 2017 when the victim was 9 and Hultin was 16. Hultin, who is related to the girl, admitted to at least one assault, but the victim said he abused her multiple times up until 2020. The next year, after she became increasingly isolated and suicidal, she told her mother and it was reported to police.

Prosecutors explained at Hultin’s sentencing Wednesday why they don’t support him serving any prison time, despite strong opposition to this from the victim’s family. The family was initially told by the first prosecutor on the case that the state would seek an eight-year prison term, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

The attorney who prosecuted the case wanted to pursue prison time–as noted, the presumptive sentence was 12 years–but the managing attorney for the county in juvenile cases overruled her and made the case to the judge that Hultin should be let off without prison time.

For raping a juvenile for whom he was entrusted to care.

The sources say that administration in the County Attorney’s Office intervened and decided no prison time was appropriate. Prosecutor Raina Urton didn’t agree with the decision and asked to explain it to the victim’s family, but that request was denied by the administration. Urton asked to be taken off the case because she didn’t want to argue for no prison time — contrary to what she already told the family.

The family begged Judge Michael Burns to impose a harsher penalty for Hultin.

“He is a monster that took my baby’s innocence … trust and dignity,” said the victim’s mother to Burns as she paused to sob midsentence. “He stole her childhood away from her. Please, give my baby justice.”

The victim and her family literally begged the judge to punish Hultin, to no avail. Hultin, you see, is a changed man at 22. He hasn’t been proven to have raped anyone in at least two years, so we should quit looking in the rear-view mirror and embrace him as a productive member of society.

His victim? Who cares? Sure, she is intermittently suicidal and describes her constant anxiety and self-loathing, but the judge and County Prosecutor’s office really think she should just get over it.

It was only pedophilic rape, after all.

“I found out he manipulated me and I have tried to commit suicide. … I can’t trust people. …I can’t look at my own body and not cry or feel disgusted,” the girl, now 15, wrote. “I can’t wear tight clothes. … I struggle to form bonds with people. I don’t know why he did it. Why can’t I have a normal life? … Some days are harder than others. I am progressively healing.”

These are the words of a 15-year-old girl, and in Hennepin County her pain means nothing. Not one damn thing. We have to think of the perpetrator, not the victim.

Skrzeckoski-Bzdusek said Hultin has been in treatment nearly a year and has not violated the terms of his conditional release. She said whether sending him to prison or having him on probation, “neither one of those options is going to change what happened to the victim in this case.”

The victim’s mother shook her head when the public defender said that to put Hultin in prison would take away from the progress he’s made in treatment.

A myth that has developed in Western society is that justice need not include retribution for wrongs that have been committed. In fact, punishment for crimes is barbaric if we have the means to rehabilitate criminals.

Of course we don’t have the means to do so in any meaningful way, but even if we did that attitude is wrong on its face.

Why? Because the justice system has to balance the victim’s pain, society’s needs, and the potential future rehabilitation of the perpetrator. Simply tossing people who commit a crime on the ash heap is unnecessary in many cases–people can indeed change–and if we can actually rehabilitate somebody we should try.

But justice also must satisfy the righteous anger of the victims and society. Shrugging at the pain of a victimized person and ignoring the importance of societal norms and laws is hideously immoral and destructive to society as a whole. Somebody committing a heinous crime and simply promising not to do so again is a slap in the face to the victim–denigrating their dignity and dismissing their pain.

And, of course, a truly reformed criminal would acknowledge the pain of the victim and accept the necessity of punishment. It is a form of recompense to the victim.

We all understand this at a basic level. “Take your punishment” is a lesson we all should be taught, not just because it is a good life lesson in itself, but also as a symbol of sorrow that one did wrong and a symbol of commitment to do better.

Demanding that one escape deserved punishment is an unwillingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions.

Not holding a person responsible for committing a heinous crime simply compounds the injustice and undermines civilization.