KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WCMH) – Prosecutors in Kansas are considering whether to appeal a sexual abuse case after the judge called a 13-year-old the “aggressor” during sentencing.
Raymond Soden, 67, is now in prison.
He allegedly told detectives he touched a 13-year-old girl, but pleaded to another charge as part of a deal with prosecutors.
“He was being 100 percent clear of what he wanted from the children to the point he was offering money for services,” Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson told KMBC.
Thompson wanted the standard sentence of just less than 14 years.
But district court judge Michael Gibbens gave Soden a little under six years.
The judge’s reasoning was the 13-year-old’s older sister helped set up the arrangement.
“A 13-year-old who offers what she offered for money is certainly an aggressor particularly since she’s the one that had to travel to Mr. Soden,” Judge Gibbens said.
“I mean these are children. They’re victims. This should not to happen to any children,” said Thompson.
The judge also noted the girls didn’t show up for sentencing and even questioned whether they even suffered any trauma.
“It’s tough for any child to have to face someone who’s done that to them,” Thompson told KMBC.
Now Thompson is debating an appeal.
The judge also noted Soden’s age in his decision, and that the sisters allegedly conspired to rob Soden.
The county argued that’s independent of the crime Soden was pleading to.