A man who paid a 13 and a 14-year-old for sex acts has been given a reduced sentence by a judge who claimed the children were “aggressors.”

County District Judge Michael Gibbens sparked outrage for his rationale in sentencing Raymond Soden to five years and 10 months in prison, seven years less than the Kansas minimum of 13 years, the Kansas Star reports.

“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 court transcripts seen by local media. “They were certainly selling things monetarily that it’s against the law for even an adult to sell.”

Soden, who has previous convictions for sexual battery and battery, was charged with electronic solicitation for sending messages to the girls offering to pay for nude photographs and sex acts.

The girls were blamed for voluntarily going to the man’s house and accepting money from him for sexual acts.

“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,” the judge said.

Soden’s lawyer Clinton Lee requested a lower sentence, claiming the recommended sentencing would be like a death sentence to the 67-year-old. He argued that the girls’ older sister had arranged for them to meet Soden. Soden knew the girls’ mother as she cleaned his house.

The judge considered Soden’s age, physical health and low intellect in his decision. He also said he was “pretty familiar” with the girls and believed it was possible they may have set him up to be robbed. He said that the fact that the girls didn’t appear in court led him to believe they weren’t as harmed as others in similar cases.

The judge also questioned the 13-year-old’s accounts that she felt “uncomfortable” by what took place in Soden’s home. “And so she’s uncomfortable for something she voluntarily went to, voluntarily took her top off of, and was paid for?” he said.

The prosecutor responded by reminding the judge “She was also a 13-year-old who under our laws can’t consent to anything”.

Advocates for victims of sexual abuse believe this ruling is damaging to other victims, and prosecutors are considering an appeal.

https://www.rt.com/usa/450722-leavensworth-judge-13yo-aggressor-abuse/

E-bot found me…what do I do

…more above…

More recently, in 2014 Barack Obama announced that the US would hand-select and arm ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria, stepping into the country’s bloody civil war. That too would prove disastrous, with troves of US arms ending up in the hands of Al-Nusra and ISIS.

But where was CNN when Obama asked Congress for $500 million to train, arm, and “empower the moderate Syrian opposition?”

CNN was reporting the news verbatim from Obama’s mouth, repeating the phrase “moderate rebels” without the ironic quotation marks that have become necessary since. Obama’s assertion that the rebels offered the “best alternative to terrorists and a brutal dictator" was not questioned, unlike Trump’s continuation of the longstanding US policy of arming the Saudis.

Obama called for funding in June 2014, but Syrian militias had already received support from the CIA for two years at that stage. CNN’s reporting on the covert arms pipeline was scant, didn’t question the credentials of the recipients, and mostly repeated the line of US intelligence officials: “That is something we are not going to dispute, but we are not going to publicly speak to it.”

Few questions were asked as Congress authorized the military support that September, and none were asked a year later as Obama resupplied his chosen rebels in Syria. Instead, Obama’s declaration of support for “the moderate Syrian opposition” was taken at face value and left unquestioned.

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https://www.rt.com/usa/450727-cnn-trump-weapons-obama-syria/

>>5042961

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>>5043019