Judge Rosemarie Aquilina handed down disgraced former Team USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar’s sentence today. After allowing every single one of his victims who wished to come forward testify against him, 156 in total, she sentenced him to 40 to 175 years in prison.
Aquilina was instrumental in creating a supportive environment in her courtroom for the women Nassar abused. When he said the experience of sitting through the testimonies of so many of these young women had a negative effect on his mental health and that it felt like a “media circus,” The New York Times says Aquilina simply replied, “Spending four or five days listening to them is significantly minor, considering the hours of pleasure you had at their expense and ruining their lives.”
The initial plan was to allow for four days of testimony; Aquilina extended it three more days to allow more women to tell their stories.
The #MeToo hero of the week is Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who has allowed 140 women to give statements against Larry Nassar. Here’s hoping Bill Cosby gets the same treatment in April.
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) January 24, 2018
After sentencing him, she said, “It is my honor and privilege to sentence you,” and, regarding the length of his sentence, added that she “just signed [his] death warrant.”
If you’re like me and had no knowledge of Aquilina prior to the start of Nassar’s trial, you probably want to know everything about her. Long story short; she’s nothing short of absolutely amazing.
Aquilina started her career as a judge when she enlisted in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, or JAG Corps, in 1986. It’s a branch of the military that focuses exclusively on military justice and law and, at the time of her enlistment, Aquilina was the first female JAG Officer in Michigan’s Army National Guard. She spent twenty years serving with them before retiring from that position in 2006. Her biography with the Ingham County Circuit Court states that she was a favorite judge and one of the most frequently requested “because of her dedication to service and the soldiers she served with.”
Before being elected to her current position on the 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County in 2008, she served four years in the 55th Circuit Court where she was both a chief judge and a sobriety court judge.
Aquilina also teaches classes as an adjunct professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School and Michigan State University School of Law. Additionally, she briefly hosted a syndicated radio talk show called Ask the Family Lawyer.
mood, 2018 pic.twitter.com/yqR5d5GIfb
— E. Alex Jung (@e_alexjung) January 24, 2018
Beyond the bench, she continues to be an all-around incredible woman. She balances the tasks that come with being a mother of five, a judge and a professor, and in addition, she is also a published crime fiction writer. Her State Detective Special Forces series has one published book, Triple Cross Killer, as of last year. The second book is reportedly almost finished, and a third is in the works.
Writing, Aquilina says, is her escape from the isolation that often comes with being a judge, and she does it in every spare minute she can find. Even if that spare minute happens to come at 2 a.m. when a character won’t let her sleep until she gets some more of the story written.
Just as writing is her solace, she was also a source of light and advocacy for the women who testified against Nassar with her “compassion and powerful personal responses” to their strength in giving testimony on the most traumatic times in their lives.
“Leave your pain here,” Aquilina told one woman after she testified against Nassar, “and go out and do your magnificent things.”