Re: Man sentenced to life in prison for rape of 10-year-old who sought abortion in Indiana

[Notin Wong]

On 26 Jan 2022, No COVID Lies <bob7d...@gmail.com> posted some
news:sssk71$mtes$2...@news.freedyn.de:

> The mother was fucking the guy too! He should get a 50% reduction in
> sentence for that.

The man charged with raping a young girl who traveled to Indiana as a
10-year-old for an abortion pleaded guilty to rape Wednesday and was
immediately sentenced to life in prison.

Gerson Fuentes, 28, was charged with two felony counts of rape in an
indictment filed in Franklin County, Ohio, last year in a case that made
national headlines after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Fuentes, a
Guatemalan national, confessed to raping the child in an interview with
police, according to documents filed in Franklin County Municipal Court.

He was charged with the rape of a minor and was supposed to stand trial
in January, but the case was delayed.

Fuentes was sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole
after 25 years and will have to register as a Tier 3 sex offender.

Prosecutors said the victim’s mother did not object to the plea and
agreed to the sentencing recommendation.

Franklin County Judge Julie Lynch said that the court considers Fuentes’
crime among the most serious offenses and that it was “hard pill” for
the court to agree to the joint sentencing recommendation, apparently
referring to the possibility of parole.

"If that family hadn’t begged me to take this joint recommendation, this
would never be happening,” Lynch said.

The child tested positive on a pregnancy test and sought out an
abortion, prosecutors confirmed in court Wednesday.

Fuentes was the live-in boyfriend of the child's mother, and the girl
was under age 10 at the time of the rape, prosecutors said.

The girl had to travel to a neighboring state to terminate the
pregnancy, her physician, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, told The Indianapolis
Star last summer. Ohio’s “fetal heartbeat” law, which outlaws abortion,
was enacted hours after the Supreme Court overturned abortion
protections in a 6-3 ruling in June last year.

The Indiana Medical Licensing Board reprimanded and fined Bernard for
speaking publicly about the girl's case in violation of patient privacy
laws.

But the board cleared her of more serious allegations she was accused of
by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, among them that she failed to
report child abuse and that she was unfit to practice medicine. Bernard
sent a cease-and-desist letter last year asking Rokita to stop making
“false or misleading statements” about her.

Bernard's attorney, Alice Morical, said in a statement in May that
Bernard was grateful to be exonerated of such allegations by the board.

"Dr. Bernard bravely stood up for access to compassionate medical care
and she is a consummate professional who deserves to care for her
patients without reproach," Morical said.

Indiana University Health, where Bernard works as an OB-GYN,
investigated the issue last year and determined that she had complied
with patient privacy laws.

Indiana has also passed a near-total abortion ban, with exceptions for
rape, incest and potentially fatal medical complications, but a judge
temporarily blocked it last year.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

https://news.yahoo.com/man-sentenced-life-prison-rape-203234669.html