CASA Volunteer backs Swandal for Supreme Court

As a volunteer with the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) program, I strongly urge you to vote for Judge Nels Swandal in the upcoming Supreme Court election.

In addition to helping create a CASA program for Park and Sweet Grass counties, Judge Swandal has always taken care to put the best interest of the child first when dealing with unfortunate cases of abuse and neglect.

One case in particular stands out. In 2005, a repeat sex offender, Dean Randolph Jess, admitted to twice raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter.

A plea agreement reached between Mr. Jess' court-appointed attorney and the former Park County Attorney could have released him from prison within four years if he completed sex offender treatment.

As the child's guardian ad litem, it was my opinion that Mr. Jess would commit such crimes again. I urged Judge Swandal to give the maximum sentence allowable because this child had endured abuse no child should suffer. Judge Swandal threw out the plea bargain and sentenced Mr. Jess to two concurrent sentences of 50 years with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

Because of Judge Swandal's work with CASA, and his courtroom decisions, many children are leading happier safer lives.

As a volunteer with the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) program, I strongly urge you to vote for Judge Nels Swandal in the upcoming Supreme Court election.

In addition to helping create a CASA program for Park and Sweet Grass counties, Judge Swandal has always taken care to put the best interest of the child first when dealing with unfortunate cases of abuse and neglect.

One case in particular stands out. In 2005, a repeat sex offender, Dean Randolph Jess, admitted to twice raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter.

A plea agreement reached between Mr. Jess' court-appointed attorney and the former Park County Attorney could have released him from prison within four years if he completed sex offender treatment.

As the child's guardian ad litem, it was my opinion that Mr. Jess would commit such crimes again. I urged Judge Swandal to give the maximum sentence allowable because this child had endured abuse no child should suffer. Judge Swandal threw out the plea bargain and sentenced Mr. Jess to two concurrent sentences of 50 years with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

Because of Judge Swandal's work with CASA, and his courtroom decisions, many children are leading happier safer lives.