Prosecutors are researching an appeal after a Kansas judge found that a 13- and 14-year-old girl were partly to blame for a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man and reduced his prison sentence.

The Kansas City Star reports that Leavenworth County District Judge Michael Gibbens said that “the victims in this case, in particular, were more an aggressor than a participant in the criminal conduct” before sentencing Raymond Soden to five years and 10 months in prison. Prosecutors sought 13-plus years because Soden had prior convictions for battery and for sexual battery.

In ordering a lighter prison term than what sentencing guidelines called for, the judge noted at the Dec. 4 hearing that the two girls had voluntarily gone to Soden’s house and had taken money for sexual favors.



