Pick ’em.  Vulnerable victim.  Abuse of an official position.  Neither one grab you?  What about raping a teenage girl?  Under most circumstances, that would be good enough to garner enough interest, even outrage, to cause someone to pay attention.  But not when it comes to probation officer Tony Simmons. 

Via Radley Balko, the Daily News explains what happened to 15 year old Ashley, charged with the heinous offense of filing a false instrument, in the bowels of Manhattan Family Court:

A hulking juvenile counselor named Tony Simmons led her in handcuffs from the girls holding area to the elevator.

She expected Tyson, as Simmons was called, to bring her up to the courtroom where she was scheduled to be sentenced for filing a false police report.

Instead, the elevator descended to the basement. The 42-year-old counselor pulled down her pants and raped her with calm, practiced precision that made him all the more terrifying.

“He knew exactly what he was doing,” Ashley said. “Everything.”

When he was done, Simmons pulled her pants back up and the elevator ascended to the courtroom. He raised an extended index finger to his lips in a mute command for her to say nothing.

Ho hum, right?  But here’s the best part.  Ashley pulled a bullet for her crime.  Simmons, on the other hand, got probation.  Did I mention that two other girls came forward, having been sexually assaulted by Simmons? 

Simmons continued to prey on teenagers in his custody until 2008, when a 15-year-old girl came forward to say he had sodomized her behind a locker in the girls holding area, which he stocked with condoms and cookies. Investigators believe the assaults go back a decade to the rape of a 13-year-old in the holding area.

The probation covered that too.  One might expect that there were others as well, but he was only indicted for the three.  And then, poof, probation.  This is where it gets really interesting.

Prosecutors never objected to a no-jail plea deal for a city worker who sexually attacked three girls inside the Manhattan Family Court building, a transcript shows.

The revelation came a day after Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. blasted the judge’s probation sentence for Tony Simmons as “outrageously lenient.”

It’s nice that Cy was outraged.  It would have been a whole lot nicer if that outrage either extended to the ADA, Amir Vonsover, who stood up and agreed to the plea, or somebody supervising him, found their outrage before the deal was done.  And so, the spin begins:

A law enforcement source said Tuesday that Vonsover did object, but at an off-the-record bench conversation with the judge where he insisted on a minimum sentence of 1 to 3 years. The judge decided to offer probation, the source said.

It would certainly seem as if the poor prosecutor had no choice, since the evil judge forced probation down his throat.  Except that’s not how it works.  On the facts, this would have been first degree rape, a class “B” felony, for which probation is unavailable.  This had to be a plea bargain, which requires the prosecution’s approval.  While a judge can reject the deal, she can’t force the prosecution to take it. 

And then there’s the “off-the-record bench conversation” where it’s claimed that Vonsover “insisted” on state prison. Yet on the record:

But according to a transcript of Monday’s hearing, the assistant district attorney in charge of the case offered no objection to the plea deal.

“Your Honor, it’s my understanding that the defendant … is willing to plead guilty in exchange for a promised sentence of probation,”

Notice where he expressed the prosecution’s outrage at the promise of probation?  I didn’t either.  Clearly, his mouth was working.  Clearly, the court allowed the prosecution the opportunity to speak.  This would have been an awfully good time for the ADA to voice his outrage over giving this court official who used his position of power and authority over vulnerable teens to rape and sexually abuse them.  Instead, he uttered the standard plea mantra, the one where everything is hunky dory and there are smiles all around.

Certainly filing a false police report, as Ashley did, claiming that she didn’t know the identity of the perp who jumped and cut her on her way to school, is a horribly heinous crime.  It impairs police work and has the potential to make them less effective than they would be with accurate information.  The fabric of society is at risk.

But Tony Simmons, on the payroll to counsel juveniles, was just having some fun.

Simmons, 47, admitted he raped a 15-year-old, forced a 16-year-old to give him oral sex and molested a second 15-year-old in the courthouse. The victims were all in court custody.

Cy really needs to either time his outrage better or find himself some ADAs who can distinguish between the severity of a kid’s lie and the likes of Tony Simmons.