Thing is, it's not the judge's place to decide what to charge someone with. That's the prosecutor's job. The prosecutor may have a reason for bringing the charges he did instead of others, eg. a plea bargain. I'd rather not have the judge stepping into the role of prosecutor or defense, deciding what's "proper" for each side (and you can't allow the judge to step in on just one side without in fairness allowing him to step in on both). The judge is supposed to be the neutral party here, not taking sides but applying the law as it's written to the evidence and arguments presented by both sides. It's not the referee's job to tell one team that their strategy's wrong and they should be using this play instead of the one they intend.

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