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Appeals court chides judge who asked if domestic violence victim and defendant 'get it on'

A Georgia appeals court has reinstated a domestic violence case dismissed by a Georgia judge after he learned the alleged victim had reconciled with the defendant.

The judge, A. Wallace Cato of the South Georgia Judicial Circuit, had dismissed the case during sentencing for the defendant, Domingo Santiago, according to the Daily Report (sub. req.). Santiago had already pleaded guilty to false imprisonment after prosecutors accused him of gagging his wife, binding her wrists and beating her with a cord.

At the sentencing hearing, Cato was informed the beating occurred after Santiago learned his wife was having an affair, according to the opinion, which didn’t identify Cato by name. The judge learned that the couple had reconciled and asked whether they “get in bed together and get it on.” The couple answered in the affirmative. Cato then asked Santiago whether the conviction was something his wife would be “holding over your head to make you do what she does.” Santiago said he believed it would be.

Cato then dismissed the case without a request from Santiago’s lawyer and over the objection of the prosecutor.

The appeals court criticized Cato’s actions. “Not only do we find a lack of legal basis for dismissing the case,” the court said, “we consider the trial court’s questions to Santiago and his wife about her adultery, their sex life, and whether she would hold a conviction over his head highly inappropriate and irrelevant.”