News10NBC In-Depth: Outrage after ex-cop sentenced to spend weekends in jail for raping 13-year-old girl

CANANDAIGUA, NY – “We wish he was in jail.”

That's what Deputy District Attorney Kelly Wolford says about Shawn Jordan. His victim's mother had begged the judge to send him there.

But Jordan doesn't go there.

Instead, the former Rochester police officer will spend ten weekends in prison in 2022 for raping a 13-year-old girl. Jordan admitted to the rape as part of a plea deal. He will also spend ten years on probation.

Jordan's conviction sparked immediate outrage among many in the community. How did a confessed child molester avoid prison time? News10NBC interviewed the Ontario Attorney General's Office to find out.

Wolford, who represented the prosecution in the case, says she understands the reaction.

“My victim, a child, is heartbroken and hurt, and her mother is devastated. One of the things I said yesterday is that I will never forget the sound of her mother's voice when I told her that her daughter had been raped. And the healing has only just begun. But right now there is a lot of grief, anger and emotion – because we all want more. But the facts and circumstances just show – this is the best we could do. I had to protect her daughter, and that's what I did.”

Jordan met the girl through her father, who was a friend. The father took the girl to Jordan's home in South Bristol. Eventually, Jordan began picking up the girl from her mother's house, prosecutors said.

He had been on the force for nearly 15 years when he raped her. But it didn't come to light until he was accused of exposing himself to a minor via video chat in Monroe County. Investigators contacted Ontario County to let them know they might have a potential victim and began their investigation, which ended with a charge of first-degree rape.

The girl did not want to testify and confront Jordan, so calling the girl to the stand was not an option. She says Jordan was offered a deal to plead guilty to second-degree rape in order to protect the girl from being raped again.

“When we negotiate a confession with a defendant and his attorney, we have to keep talking about what they're agreeing to do. And there's always this ongoing discussion about whether they're willing to confess, which frankly is rare,” Wolford says. “But if they do, we have to negotiate what they're agreeing to do and how much time or supervision they're going to get.”

Judge Kristina Karle accepted the settlement. She is a Republican and has been a judge for six years. Her husband is a police officer in Rochester. News10NBC asked if this represented a conflict of interest. District Attorney Jim Ritts is convinced that her husband's profession played no role. He says Karle's husband does not know Jordan and she has a lot of experience handling sex crimes.

“I don't believe for a second that this judge in any way thought about or considered where this man worked,” he said. “Police officers hold other police officers to a higher standard. We have no reason to believe this judge did anything different.”

A trial date for the Monroe County case has not yet been set. Jordan will begin his sentence later this month.

The girl is now 15. Ritts called her an amazing, strong young woman who is being helped to heal.

If you need help reporting abuse or coping with abuse, contact the Child Advocacy Center of Greater Rochester (formerly known as Bivona).