SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah judge is facing a deluge of complaints after calling a former Mormon bishop convicted of rape an “extraordinary, good man” who did something wrong, a judicial oversight organization said Friday.
The criticism began when Judge Thomas Low let Keith Robert Vallejo out of custody after a jury found him guilty of 10 counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of object rape, said Jennifer Yim, executive director of the Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission.
But Yim said most of the roughly 40 emails, six voicemails and some Facebook messages filed since late March came after Low sentenced Vallejo to up to life in prison and seemed to get emotional during the hearing, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
“The court has no doubt that Mr. Vallejo is an extraordinary, good man,” Low said during sentencing. “But great men sometimes do bad things.”
Low did not return a request for comment submitted through a court spokesman.
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