Judge Gibbens noted that the girls were partly to blame for what happened A Kansas judge is under fire after he said that two teenage victims of a sex offender were “more an aggressor than a participant.” Leavenworth County District Judge Michael Gibbens made the statement as he sentenced 67-year-old Raymond Soden to 5 years and 10 months in prison for soliciting two girls, ages 13 and 14, on Facebook in January 2018. According to the Kansas City Star, prosecutors had sought a sentence of more than 13 years. Get push notifications with news, features and more. While sentencing Soden, Judge Gibbens noted that the girls were partly to blame for what happened, pointing out that they voluntarily went to his home. “I do find that the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct,” Gibbens said before sentencing Soden, according to transcripts first obtained by the Kansas City Star. According to WPTV, the judge also cited the girls’ decision to take money for sex as a reason for his lenient sentence. “They were certainly selling things monetarily that it’s against the law for even an adult to sell,” he said, according to the court transcript also obtained by NBC News. Judge Gibbens also noted that the girls did not appear at the sentencing hearing, and questioned the level of harm that the girls suffered. The younger girl told authorities that she had felt “uncomfortable” with the sexual contact. Judge Gibbens asked Deputy County Attorney Joan Lowdon for clarification, according to the transcripts. “She’s uncomfortable for something she voluntarily went to, voluntarily took her top off and was paid for?” he asked Lowdon. “Yes, judge,” Lowdon responded. “She was also a 13-year-old who under our laws can’t consent to anything.” • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. After the judge’s controversial sentencing comments, Attorney Lowdon questioned his rationale. According to the transcripts, the judge told her she could raise that issue upon appeal. Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson tells the Kansas City Star that his office is considering taking the matter to a higher court. “We have looked into filing an appeal, but we have not made a decision,” Thompson told the newspaper. “We always try to zealously advocate for the victims and community safety in every case we pursue.”<doc-sep>A Kansas judge has come under fire for saying in court that two girls--solicited by an online predator to have sex with him when they were 13 and 14--were partly to blame for what happened to them. “I do find that the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct,” Leavenworth County Judge Michael Gibbens said in remarks delivered at a December sentencing for a 67-year-old man who paid for sex with the two girls, according to a report in the Kansas City Star. The Star reported on Sunday that Gibbens ignored prosecutors in sentencing Raymond Soden to nearly six years in prison. Prosecutors said Soden had a prior conviction for battery and sexual battery and had asked that he be sentenced to more than 13 years in prison. TEXAS TEACHER TRIED TO TRAFFIC UNDERAGE RELATIVE FOR SEX TO MEN IN MOROCCO, COPS SAY The paper reported that Gibbens explained his reasoning for the more lenient sentence by saying that the two girls went to Soden’s house voluntarily and took money from him for sexual favors. “They were certainly selling things monetarily that it’s against the law for even an adult to sell,” he said, according to the paper, which obtained a transcript of the sentencing. Neither girl showed up for the sentencing. That also swayed the judge’s sentence, the paper reported. A child advocate in Shawnee, Kan., told the paper that the two girls were minors and victims, not the aggressors. CALIFORNIA TO HONOR ADVOCATE FOR VICTIMS OF 'SEXUAL SLAVERY' DURING WORLD WAR II, WHO DIED THIS WEEK AT AGE 93 “Sexual assault is never the victim’s fault. It doesn’t matter what the girls did or didn’t do, he is still the adult and nobody deserves to be taken advantage of sexually,” Michelle Herman said, according to the paper. In August, Soden pleaded no contest to a charge of electronic solicitation, a felony. He admitted knowing the younger girl was 13. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Leavenworth County government lists a phone number for Gibbens on its website. A message left at the number by Fox News on Monday was not immediately returned.<doc-sep>Prosecutors in Kansas are considering appealing the sentencing decision of a judge who called two minor girls the "aggressor" in a sex-abuse case involving a 67-year-old man. Leavenworth County District Judge Michael Gibbens made the comments during a Dec. 4 sentencing hearing for Raymond Soden, who had been convicted of contacting one of the girls on the internet and offering to pay for sex acts. Gibbens sentenced Soden to five years and 10 months in prison. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of more than 13 years, citing prior convictions. Raymond Eugene Soden Kansas Department of Corrections "I do find that the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct," Gibbens said, according to a transcript of the hearing released by the Leavenworth County court. "They were certainly selling things monetarily that it's against the law for even an adult to sell." Soden was convicted of soliciting a 13-year-old girl on Facebook in January 2018. According to prosecutors, he contacted the teenager and a 14-year-old girl and offered to pay the girls for sex acts. Gibbens went on to say during Soden's sentencing hearing that the 13-year-old was "certainly an aggressor" because she traveled to Soden's home. He also questioned the level of harm both girls suffered because they were not present for the sentencing hearing. "Mr. Soden did not travel to her is the way I understood this," the judge said. NBC News reached out to Gibbens for comment but did not immediately hear back. In Kansas, a 13- or 14-year-old cannot consent to sexual relations, Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said to NBC News on Monday. He confirmed that prosecutors are looking into whether to file an appeal. "Since we use the sentencing guidelines, the judge has to make a substantial, compelling ruling of why to depart" from the guidelines with a lesser sentence, Thompson said. "And we're looking into whether the grounds were met with that."<doc-sep>A mural of George Floyd is shown in the intersection of 38th St & Chicago Ave on March 31, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Community members continue preparations during the third day in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with multiple counts of murder in the death of George Floyd. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 01: President Donald Trump's lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani talks to journalists outside the White House West Wing July 01, 2020 in Washington, DC. Giuliani did an on-camera interview with One America News Network's Chanel Rion before talking to other journalists about Vice President Joe Biden and the news that Russian intelligence may have paid Taliban operatives to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Vigils & tributes to George Floyd one year since his murder ORLANDO, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 28: Former President Donald Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference held in the Hyatt Regency on February 28, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. Begun in 1974, CPAC brings together conservative organizations, activists, and world leaders to discuss issues important to them. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Here's what reported grand jury in Trump case may look like NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 09: People walk past the Trump Tower as the impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins in Washington on February 09, 2021 in New York City. After listening to nearly four hours of legal arguments, the Senate has voted on Tuesday to move ahead with the impeachment trial of former President Trump. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Report: US companies may have benefited from forced labor of Uyghurs WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 20: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the conflict in the Middle East from Cross- Hall of the White House on May 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Israel and Hamas announced that they would agree to a cease-fire, which will take into effect on Friday, following days of fighting that claimed more than 200 lives. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) SAN JOSE, CA - MAY 26: A view of the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) light-rail yard where a mass shooting occurred on May 26, 2021 in San Jose, California. A VTA employee opened fire at the yard, with preliminary reports indicating nine people dead including the gunman. (Photo by Philip Pacheco/Getty Images) A healthcare worker prepares to administer a Pfizer/BioNTEch coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine at The Michener Institute, in Toronto, Ontario on December 14, 2020. - Ontario, Canada's most populous province and one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, had 1,940 new cases and 23 deaths on Monday. The province is expected to give its next doses to nursing home workers as a priority, according to media reports. (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) 'Never seen levels like this': Union president on airline passenger misconduct Memorial Day weekend will bring rain and cool air for much of the East (CNN) — Prosecutors in Kansas are considering appealing a judge’s sentencing decision, after he called the teen victims of a sex crime the “aggressor” in the case. Leavenworth County District Court Judge Michael Gibbens was weighing the case of Raymond Soden, a 67-year-old man convicted of using social media to solicit sex from minors. Authorities said Soden communicated with two sisters, ages 13 and 14, through Facebook and offered them money in exchange for nude photos, CNN affiliate KCTV reported. Gibbens said the teen girls were partially at fault. “I do find that the victims in this case in particular were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct. They were certainly selling things monetarily that it’s against the law for even an adult to sell,” Gibbens said during a sentencing hearing in December, according to a court transcript. CNN has reached out to Gibbens for comment and has not heard back. The judge sentenced Soden to five years and 10 months in prison – a considerably shorter term than the state sentencing guidelines’ standard of 14 years and 8 months. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of more than 13 years in prison. Under the state’s sentencing guidelines, a judge is allowed to chose a lower punishment if there are “substantial and compelling reasons” to do it and if the “victim was an aggressor or participant” in the crime. During the hearing, the judge said Soden is physically and mentally impaired, is of an advanced age and lacks “substantial capacity for judgment,” according to the transcript. After Gibbens announced the sentence, a prosecutor asked him to clarify why he referred to the victims as the aggressor. “Yes. I think that a 13-year-old who offers what she offered for money is certainly an aggressor,” Gibbens responded. Julie Donelon, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Organization to Count Sexual Assault, rejected Gibbens’ comments about the girls. “Clearly 13- and 14-year-old children cannot be aggressors. Children do not have the capacity to consent, and I think we need to make that very clear,” Donelon told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. “We understand as a society that it’s never the victim’s fault,” she added. Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said Wednesday that prosecutors are mulling over an appeal for Soden’s sentence. “There were a lot of other factors like mental capacity and age and health,” Thompson said. “(A)n appeal is about law, not emotion – so we have to take out the comments and think about the other factors.” Soden remains in custody at El Dorado Correctional Facility near Wichita, Kansas, with the earliest possible release date of March 3, 2023, according to online records with the Kansas Department of Corrections.<doc-sep>
A Kansas judge has come under fire after arguing that two girls under the age of 16 had been the “aggressors” in a sexual abuse case involving a 67-year-old man, the Kansas City Star reported. In pointing to what he saw as their active role in the encounter and their apparent lack of trauma, the judge sentenced the man to less than half the prison time recommended by Kansas sentencing guidelines. In December, Leavenworth County District Judge Michael Gibbens sentenced Raymond Soden to just five years and 10 months in prison for knowingly soliciting a 13-year-old girl on Facebook, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors, who told the Star they are now looking into the possibility of an appeal based on the judge’s comments, had asked for more than 13 years, as Soden had prior convictions for battery and sexual battery. The judge, however, made a point of noting that the girls, ages 13 and 14, had voluntarily gone to Soden’s house and taken money for sexual favors. “I do find that the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct,” Gibbens said. “They were certainly selling things monetarily that it’s against the law for even an adult to sell.” He later reiterated, “I think that a 13-year-old who offered what she offered for money is certainly an aggressor, particularly since she’s the one that had to travel to Mr. Soden.” Gibbens also responded to a statement the younger girl gave that she felt “uncomfortable” about one incident with physical contact. “And so she’s uncomfortable for something she voluntarily went to, voluntarily took her top off of, and was paid for?” Gibbens asked the prosecutor. “Yes, judge. She was also a 13-year-old who under our laws can’t consent to anything,” the prosecutor responded. The age of consent in Kansas is 16. The judge acknowledged the point but, according to the Star, said, “I wonder what kind of trauma there really was to this victim under those peculiar circumstances.”