Normally, a circuit judge’s retention campaign in downstate Illinois is a snooze.

This was not the case when Judge Robert Adrian announced plans to remain on the bench of the Eighth Circuit Court at a raucous news conference in July. Chanting protesters and applauding supporters jockeyed, and sometimes elbowed, for position. It didn’t come to fisticuffs, but it did turn ugly.

Adrian made international news when he reversed his conviction of Drew Clinton on felony sexual assault charges involving a 16-year-old high school student.

Both had attended a graduation party in which drinking was involved. Cammy Vaughan, who publicly came forward after the sentencing reversal, says she was intoxicated and fell asleep on a couch only to be awakened with a pillow over her face and 18-year-old Clinton assaulting her.

At the sentencing hearing in January, Adrian changed his verdict to circumvent the state’s mandatory minimum sentence of 4 years.

“Mr. Clinton has served almost 5 months in the county jail, 148 days. For what happened in this case, that is plenty of punishment,” said Adrian, according to court transcripts.

Outrage was immediate. News media including The New York Times and Britain’s Daily Mail reported the story. TV personalities such as Dr. Phil and Nancy Grace debated the decision. A grassroots group, Stand With Cammy, launched a change.org petition to oust Adrian. Protests were held in Quincy, the county seat of Adams County.

“The amount of press attention this case has gotten was huge. The groundswell of grassroots activism is very substantial for a case in a small rural community,” said Carrie Ward, CEO of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Downstate Illinois hasn’t received this much attention since the Great Flood of 1993.

The judge has not been immune to criticism. When he discovered Joshua Jones, lead trial attorney for the Adams County state’s attorney’s office, had “liked” a social media post Adrian felt was critical of him, the judge kicked him out of his courtroom. “I can’t be fair with you. Get out,” Adrian said.

That action and the reversed verdict got the attention of the legal community and higher courts. Adrian was reassigned to civil matters and removed from criminal cases.

Citing double jeopardy protections, the Illinois Supreme Court rejected a petition in March to resentence Clinton, “even where an acquittal is ‘based upon an egregiously erroneous foundation.'”

Currently, the Illinois Courts Commission is reviewing a complaint filed by the Judicial Inquiry Board. It charges Adrian with prejudicial conduct, bringing the judicial office into disrepute and lying under oath before the board. Disciplinary action could involve removal from office, suspension with or without pay, censor or reprimand. A status hearing is scheduled for Oct. 13, according to Shelley Bethune, executive director and general counsel for the Illinois Courts Commission.

Adrian trucks in disinformation: He denies the facts, revises history, blames the news media and cites personal grievances.

He falsely claims that the Illinois Supreme Court found him “innocent,” the media’s reportage was “bought and paid for” and protesters were hired to heckle him.

Clinton is “innocent,” “the left” is behind the sullying of his reputation and lies were told to try to “cancel me,” Adrian has said.

Sporting a “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirt and a MAGA cap, Clinton’s defense attorney, Andrew Schnack, clapped for the judge during the 10-minute news conference. Then Adrian and his supporters regrouped to the parking lot of Schnack’s law office, seemingly to escape the courthouse protesters.

Consider the optics: Does Adrian’s movement to the property of Clinton’s attorney suggest judicial impartiality or a chummy relationship?

Adrian is not totally unrepentant — he apologized to attorney Jones. “I called Mr. Jones a couple of days after it happened and apologized to him for my actions. … My only excuse for my action is that God created us all human, even judges,” he said in a letter to a Quincy news outlet.

First elected in 2010 and retained in 2016, Adrian needs 60% of votes Nov. 8. The question on the ballot is: Should Judge Robert Adrian be retained?

While it is rare that a judge loses in uncontested elections — a process that obviously favors incumbents — Adrian has brought notoriety to his office and to downstate Illinois.

The judge, who is paid more than $200,000 a year, rebuked the law and is being investigated for judicial misconduct. Since Adrian’s moral bookkeeping is completely out of whack, voters in the Eighth Circuit District must hold him accountable.

In the end, his bombastic rhetoric neglects the true victim in this case, Cammy Vaughn, who watched tearfully on the sidelines among Stand With Cammy supporters. Now 17 and working as a nurse assistant at an area hospital, she cautioned, “If he let one rapist free, what else will he let slide?”

“I hope everybody votes no,” Vaughn said. “He does not understand what justice is.”

Christine Ledbetter, a former arts editor at The Washington Post, is a journalist now living in downstate Illinois.