Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/933296
maltatoday SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018 News 17 all of his wrongdoings by the vic- tims themselves. Particularly when his behaviour led to not one, but two instances of suicide – one of former athlete Chelsea Markham (her mother Deborah spoke in her daughter's absence at the Nassar hearing), another of the father of yet another one of his victims – a tragic result of his initial scepti- cism about his daughter's com- plaints. And Aquilina's rebuff to a plead- ing e-mail from Nasser – who wrote to the judge a week before the case that hearing his victims speak about their plight right in front of him would be "too much to take" – was yet another exam- ple of the judge's uncompromising stance. "Spending four or five days lis- tening to them is significantly mi- nor considering the hours of pleas- ure you've had at their expense and ruining their lives," Aquilina told him. Maltese father, German mother But who is Judge Rosemarie Aq- uilina? As hinted at earlier – and, apparently, in direct contradic- tion of a case that has attracted so much media attention – we are not privy to all that much information about Aquilina's private life and personal history beyond the basics. (Though perhaps our assumption that we somehow should be says more about our own cultural as- sumptions of anyone who makes the media cycle, than anything else.) We do know that she does, in- deed, have Maltese blood though – from her father's side. The daugh- ter of an emigrating European couple who "met on a train" (her mother is German) Aquilina came to the US as a toddler, while her Malta-born father later went on to produce wine in Argentina, creat- ing the Aquilina Wines brand. "From what I see here, I don't want to drink alcohol. I'm not go- ing to be seen in public drinking, and in private, I don't drink it ei- ther. There's nothing good that comes of it. But I understand it's a very good wine." Aquilina said this in an interview with Washtenaw County Legal News back in July of 2014; years before the Nassar case, of course, but already hinting at Aquilina's tendency to attract notably high- profile cases – something she looks at in quasi-religious terms. "The computer does it. God's giving them to me – if anybody is. I think certain things are put in your hands." Among these cases is that of a se- rial rapist she sent to prison in late 2014, who subsequently lashed out at her and threatened her family. In that same year, Aquilina also ruled that Detroit's bankruptcy filing went against the Michigan Constitution and state law – even writing a letter to then-president Barack Obama alerting him about the worrying implications of that same case. But Aquilina's reputa- tion was perhaps given the ultimate seal of "power- branding" during her time in the military – she became the first female Judge Advocate Gen- eral (JAG) in the Michigan Army National Guard – where she was dubbed as 'Barracuda Aqui- lina'. And in what is per- haps the most tell- ing precursor to the Larry Nassar case, she was even instrumental in amending a stat- ute so as to make things harder for child abusers in the future. "I didn't wait for a lobbyist," she told Washtenaw County Legal News. "I simply went and got what I needed because I understand the legislative process. I know how to get it done. I don't wait for people to sit at luncheons and decide what they're going to do. I go and get it done." "There's no reason I can't do it. And I do." Representing the reckoning The media will of course be awaiting more commentary from Aquilina with baited breath in the coming months and, given how this grandmother-of-two (who in turn gave birth to a third daughter at the age of 52) does not just have legal and academic credentials but is also a novelist in her spare time, perhaps it's not unrealistic to ex- pect an expanded commentary on the case in book-form one of these days. (She is an adjunct professor at Cooley Law School and at Michi- gan State University College of Law, and has to date published two crime novels, with a third one on the way). America may not be going through some of its best "PR mo- ments" on the international scene right now, and there's certainly a lot to be questioned about buy- ing into the myth of the American Dream hook, line and sinker – the idea that one can be the master of their own destiny if they just put in the work with the necessary zeal, grit and conviction. But it appears that this half-Maltese, half-Ger- man judge has done precisely that, and at a crucial time too. Now that speaking truth to power has become a key priority of public discourse in more ways than one – with a "reckoning" on the perpetrators of sexual assault being chief among these – it's no surprise that a judge who speaks not only with great eloquence but also with great force has become a rallying point. Judge Rosemarie Aquilina delivered a landmark ruling that spoke directly to the 'MeToo' era earlier this week after she sentenced serial rapist and former Olympic doctor Larry Nassar to 175 years in prison. TEODOR RELJIC digs into the history of this powerhouse figure, born to a German mother and a Maltese father... powerhouse judge: Rosemarie Aquilina