A First Amendment watchdog organization has handed Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront a dubious award for his ruling keeping the word “rape” and other terms out of a sexual assault trial.

The Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression, based in Virginia, selected Cheuvront and 17 other individuals and organizations for the 2008 Jefferson Muzzle award in a news release Monday.

According to the news release, the organization since 1992 has recognized “what it considers to be particularly egregious or ridiculous affronts to free expression” in the preceding year.

Cheuvront in pre-trial orders in the sexual assault prosecution of Pamir Safi, formerly of Lincoln, barred witnesses from using “rape,” “assailant,” and “sexual assault kit,” among other terms in the trial.

The judge said the terms could be unfairly prejudicial to Safi. He allowed use of the phrase, “sexual assault.”

Safi was accused of sexually assaulting University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Tory Bowen in his Lincoln apartment in 2004. Safi admitted to having sex with Bowen, but he maintained it was consensual.

The first trial ended with a deadlocked jury in 2006. Cheuvront declared another mistrial in July during jury selection.

Cheuvront, through a spokeswoman, declined comment Monday.

“Although a criminal defendant’s right to a fair trial is a constitutional imperative of a very high order, the protection of that interest must also recognize and preserve the First Amendment rights of participants in the legal process,”  the organization said in a news release.