Judge Presiding Over Madison Brooks Rape Trial Is Mother of Convicted Serial Rapist: Report
The son of the judge set to preside over one of the men accused in the horrific gang rape of Louisiana State University student Madison Brooks is a convicted serial rapist, and the judge herself once represented him in court, the New York Post reported.
The trial for Desmond Carter, 21, one of the three men charged with raping Brooks inside a vehicle before her death, is scheduled to begin August 17 before Judge Gail Horne Ray of the 19th Judicial District Court, according to WBRZ.
Brooks, a 19-year-old LSU student, was fatally struck by a car in January 2023 after a group of men allegedly raped her and then dumped her out of a vehicle onto a Baton Rouge highway.
Now it has been widely reported that Judge Ray’s son, Nelson Dan Taylor Jr., now 46, is a convicted serial rapist. In 1997, when he was 17 and a high school student, Taylor pleaded guilty to three counts of forcible rape and five counts of aggravated burglary stemming from a series of attacks on multiple girls, including some of his classmates, between the fall of 1995 and spring of 1996.
According to reports, Taylor surprised victims in their bedrooms while armed with a knife or gun and wearing a mask. He was sentenced to 50 years.
A later post-conviction arrangement reduced aspects of the sentence. Judge Ray, then a defense attorney, represented her own son in the case.
Taylor recently returned to court on July 22 seeking to have his rape convictions and sentences set aside nearly three decades later.
Every sitting judge in the 19th Judicial District and the East Baton Rouge district attorney’s office recused themselves from Taylor’s proceeding because of his relationship to Judge Ray. The Louisiana Supreme Court assigned an outside judge and prosecutor to handle the matter.