DA reacts to anger over ‘generous’ sentence for rapist, former Rochester Police Officer Shawn Jordan

Canandaigua, N.Y. (WROC) — 10 weekends in jail followed by 10 years probation.

That’s the punishment for former Rochester Police Officer Shawn Jordan , who admitted to raping a 13-year-old girl.

Many out there expressed outrage over this punishment when it was announced Wednesday rightly pointing out some guilty of similar crimes get years in prison.

But Thursday, Ontario County District Attorney Jim Ritts told News 8 why it was the best they thought they could get.

Ritts says he understands why people are upset Jordan will spend fewer than a dozen weekends in jail calling it a “generous” sentencing.

“I’m disappointed, truly, that Shawn Jordan did not get the sentence that he deserved,” Ritts said.

But Ritts says both his prosecutor on the case, Kelly Wolford, and the judge, Kristina Karle, did what they could, adding the judge gave him the max under the plea agreement.

Karle could have rejected the agreement, he says, but she knew Jordan would never accept another that included prison time.

“Child sex offenders in prison and police officers in prison would compound those things and he knew exactly what he was facing if prison was in the works,” Ritts said.

Ritts says they were forced to negotiate because the case largely relied on the story of a child and that story did not come out until well after the crime.

“When you have a delayed disclosure that impacts on the ability to obtain forensic evidence, for there to be medical evidence, for any of those things that happened and so they don’t exist and we know that they don’t exist because time passes and bodies heal and so what we’re ending up with is a case that relies on a child going into court to talk about a sensitive subject in front of their accuser and the re-victimization of a child is always one of things we have to consider,” Ritts said.

Ritts says the girl and her family were part of the conversation the entire time.

He also says Jordan will have to register as a sex offender and agreed to 10 years of probation, which comes with much more scrutiny than parole.

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Jordan is also accused of sexting with a minor in Monroe County and that case will likely resume now that the Ontario case is over, though Ritts does not expect that to produce a particularly large punishment.

Jordan was initially suspended from RPD and later resigned.

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