Former Idaho state lawmaker convicted of raping legislative intern sentenced to 20 years in prison
BOISE, Idaho — A former Idaho lawmaker convicted of raping a 19-year-old legislative intern has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crime.
Aaron von Ehlinger must serve at least eight years before he will be eligible for parole, 4th District Judge Michael Reardon said during the sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
Von Ehlinger was convicted of felony rape in April, roughly a year after he resigned from his seat in the House of Representatives after an ethics committee recommended that he be banned from the statehouse.
The judge said von Ehlinger failed to show empathy or remorse, and that it was clear he was not ready for sex offender treatment. The sentence would at least deter von Ehlinger from committing another crime while he is incarcerated, Reardon said.
“You have a pattern of explaining, excusing, deflecting and blaming others for the circumstances you find yourself in,” Reardon said.
The investigation into von Ehlinger’s actions began in March 2021 after the intern told a statehouse supervisor that the Republican from Lewiston raped her at his apartment after the two had dinner at a Boise restaurant. Von Ehlinger has maintained the sex was consensual.
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But the judge said von Ehlinger demonstrated a lack of empathy for the victim and had a propensity to blame her.
“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,” Reardon told the defendant. “You created your own circumstances that put you here today.”
The judge also ordered von Ehlinger to register as a sex offender and placed him under a no-contact order lasting through 2055.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-idaho-state-lawmaker-convicted-raping-legislative-intern-senten-rcna45818?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR0Kr6E0o0WaYsgXxF0CthD7jTQy-btDEMX19SpalIs8U48Pdj_fpBKnoOU
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