As part of my focus on the case of Justin Farnsworth, a convicted sex offender given custody by Dakota County Judge Jospeh T. Carter of an unrelated 9-year-old girl Farnsworth raped for months, I have sent letters to my representatives at the Minnesota Legislature urging them to impeach the judge.

To the honorable Senator Mike McGinn and Representative Tim Wilkin,

As one of your constituents, I must express to you my profound disappointment and dismay with the performance of Judge Joseph T. Carter in Dakota County. In a decision earlier this year, Judge Carter granted custody of three little girls to Justin Paul Farnsworth, who lived with the girls' mother. At the time, both Judge Carter and the court-appointed investigator, David Jaehne, knew that Farnsworth was a registered sex offender who had raped a 13-year-old girl ten years earlier. Despite this information, Judge Carter granted custody to Farnsworth of not only the youngest two, who are his daughters, but also the oldest, a 9-year-old unrelated to Farnworth at all.

As almost anyone but a family court judge could have guessed, Farnsworth repeatedly raped and abused the 9-year-old for months until she was rescued by a neighbor.

Judge Carter failed to follow Minnesota state law requiring judges to appoint a guardian ad litem for the children during the custody process. The abandonment of the children by the mother and the sex-offender status of the petitioner should have demonstrated an obvious need for an advocate to speak on behalf of the three girls. His failure to follow the law as well as to apply any standard of common sense disqualifies him for the bench, in my view, if not from the Bar altogether.

Any man with a shred of honor would resign his post under these circumstances. If Judge Carter does not act with honor, I urge you to initiate impeachment proceedings against Judge Joseph T. Carter. We must not wait until he allows more children to be raped and abused before removing him from his office.

Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.

My earlier posts on this subject can be found here, here, and here. If you want to make your voice heard, you can reach Senator McGinn and Representative Wilkins by e-mail:

rep.tim.wilkin@house.mn
sen.mike.mcginn@senate.mn

UPDATE: Thanks to the people who have written or commented on this story. In fact, I think letters, e-mails, and phone calls from outside the county/district would be very helpful, as it will underscore the national revulsion people feel about Judge Carter's actions and the embarrassment he's caused Dakota County and Minnesota. When I get a response, I will post it immediately. If I don't hear anything back by Wednesday, I plan on making some phone calls.

James of Folsom -- a regular Northern Alliance reader and one of the Infinite Monkeys -- pointed out that a recall mechanism exists in Minnesota for judges. I'm looking into whether this qualifies.

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