Please don’t vote to retain Thomas Low as a judge in the Fourth District. Pay particular attention when you mark your ballots this week. In 2017, Judge Low sentenced Keith Robert Vallejo to prison after a jury found him guilty of 10 counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of object rape.
The judge said that Vallejo, who had served as a Mormon bishop, was an “extraordinary, good man” and a “great man.” He didn’t show the same regard for the victims, one of whom was in the courtroom. Director Mark Lawrence of Restore Our Humanity said that Low’s comments expressed “absolute disregard” for the victim.
The victim said she had hoped Low would order Vallejo to serve consecutive sentences because there were two victims. Instead he was sentenced to serve two terms concurrently. The judge’s statement about the perpetrator was so egregious that it was noted in both The Salt Lake Tribune and The Guardian, a British daily newspaper.
Sherri Park, West Jordan
