Former Idaho state Representative Aaron von Ehlinger has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of raping his 19-year-old legislative intern.
During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Michael Reardon said that von Ehlinger must spend at least eight years behind bars before he’s eligible for parole, according to the Associated Press.
The former Republican lawmaker was convicted of felony rape in April. He resigned from the state House about a year earlier following a recommendation from the ethics committee that he be barred from the chamber.
According to Judge Reardon, von Ehlinger didn’t show remorse or empathy, adding that he wasn’t ready for treatment for sex offenders.
The judge said that the prison time would at least avert the possibility that von Ehlinger would commit another offence while he’s imprisoned.
“You have a pattern of explaining, excusing, deflecting and blaming others for the circumstances you find yourself in,” the judge said, according to the AP.
The investigation started in March of last year after the intern told a supervisor in the statehouse that the then-lawmaker had raped her at his apartment after they had had dinner at a restaurant in the Idaho capital of Boise.
Von Ehlinger has consistently claimed that it was consensual.
The intern, who wishes to remain unnamed, was present when the sentence was handed down. The prosecutor played a recording of the intern speaking about the rape and how it had left her with trauma.
The intern said in the recording that her autonomy was “ripped violently away”.
When hearing his name, she sometimes has panic attacks, she said, adding that she has installed surveillance cameras outside her home.
Supporters of the former GOP representative published the intern’s name, photo, and other personal details after she reported the crime. She was harassed on multiple occasions.
She added in the recording that “I am here now. I am here scared, I am here frightened, I am so petrified, but I will not be intimidated into silence so that another rapist can slip through the cracks of this justice system”.
“I hope he rots in pieces behind those cold metal bars,” she said.
Von Ehlinger told the judge that he was a paratrooper in Afghanistan and that he was trained to protect others, particularly women.
“We were trained to fight against evil and fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, especially women. That is something I believed then and something I absolutely believe now,” he said.
“The only thing between Afghani women and the middle ages was the American soldier and I am very proud that we were able to do that,” he added, according to the AP.
He said that ahead of the trial, he went on a pilgrimage to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.
“I was ultimately baptized in the Jordan River,” he said. But before that, he had to confess any sins.
“I confessed a lot of sins, your honour, I am not a perfect man, but rape was not a sin that I could confess to. It would be [a] sin to confess to something that I did not commit,” von Ehlinger told the judge.
“You see yourself as a victim and you see yourself as a hero, and frankly I don’t see you as either one of those things,” Judge Reardon told the former lawmaker. “You created your own circumstances that put you here today.”
Von Ehlinger also has to register as a sex offender and Judge Reardon put in place a no-contact order until 2055.
