You’re not going to believe this one. From Elmer Smith in the Philadelphia Daily News:

[Tracy] McIntosh pleaded no contest to a charge that he forced himself on his semi-conscious victim while she was sick and groggy from liquor and drugs that he allegedly slipped into one of her drinks.

But then he threw himself on the mercy of a court that was more merciful to him than he was to his victim and more merciful than it would have been with most sexual predators, I suspect.

Unlike most sexual predators, this one faced a judge who took judicial notice of his important work with victims of stroke and brain injuries. McIntosh, a former Fulbright scholar, was director of Penn’s Head Injury Research Center when he assaulted his victim.

Means, apparently impressed by McIntosh’s credentials, ignored sentencing guidelines calling for five-11 years in prison and placed him under house arrest for up to two years plus 12 years’ probation.

The victim in the case had begged Judge Means to send McIntosh to jail.

“By raping me, he took something from me that I will never get back,” she said. “It will affect me for the rest of my life, and I don’t want this to happen to other women.”

In explaining his decision, Means said he “factored in McIntosh’s important work with stroke victims and brain injuries,” according to the Daily News.

McIntosh is considered one of the best brain researchers in the world. His research on stem cells has the potential to help people with spinal-cord injuries.

But that shouldn’t matter in a court of law. McIntosh did the crime; he should do some time.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham, agrees. Yesterday she said she will file a motion of reconsideration of sentence.

“Nobody is ‘too important’ for prison,” Abraham said. “This is a crime that clearly deserves prison time.”

(Hat tip: reader Richard Davis)

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