Former Judge Tim Nolan sentenced to 20 years. 'You ... made me lose hope' one victim tells him.

NEWPORT, Ky. –The graphic details of ex-judge Tim Nolan's crimes unfolded as letters from his victims were read in court on Friday.

"Tim Nolan, I want to say, you ruined my life," one teenage victim wrote in her letter. "You ruined my childhood teenage years and made me lose hope. I hate you."

The target of that letter sat dressed in a gray suit and leg shackles. A former judge, school board member and longtime Republican activist, Nolan sat silently as prosecutors read the anguished words of women he coerced into having sex.

“I was forced to stay in his apartment in Alexandria and was told if I ever left, he would call the police and I would go back to jail because I was on the run," wrote one victim. "I ended up turning myself in because jail was better than one more second spent with Tim Nolan."

Nolan, 72, will serve 20 years in prison for human trafficking and must register as a sex offender for life, a judge decided Friday. He'll be eligible for parole in four years. It was all part of the plea agreement Nolan agreed to in February before he tried to back out of the deal a month later.

Judge Kathleen Lape wouldn't allow Nolan to back out on Friday.

"The threats and abuse end today," Lape said.

'Tim Nolan knew vulnerability when he saw it'

The case in Campbell County Circuit Court garnered national attention. Nolan's brash style made him one of the more visible campaigners for President Trump in Northern Kentucky, though since his arrest many in the campaign publicly questioned his claim of heading the campaign in Campbell County.

"This has been one of oddest cases I’ve ever seen," Lape told the courtroom as she started the sentencing on Friday.

The charges against Nolan involved 19 women, seven of which were under 18, and go back as far as 2004. All but two were addicted to opioids, Whaley said.

He would often visit a local woman's shelter in Covington, Transitions' Women's Residential Addiction Program, and "was a frequent volunteer at drug court," to meet women addicted to opioids, said Assistant Attorney General Barbara Whaley, the special prosecutor in the case.

Transitions didn't respond to a message seeking comment.

Whaley didn't say what drug court. District Judge Karen Thomas, who runs the drug court in Campbell County, told the Enquirer the drug court doesn't have volunteers and Nolan had no involvement.

Whaley wouldn't comment after the hearing.

More: Tim Nolan was a judge. Tim Nolan was a conservative activist. Tim Nolan was a human trafficker.

Letters read by Whaley described in detail how Nolan plied young women over the past decade with heroin. He extorted sex for drugs.

"Tim Nolan knew vulnerability when he saw it," one of the victims wrote in her impact statement. "He used my addiction as a tactic for control."

As prosecutors investigated the case last year, they found many of his victims in jail. Addiction made them do whatever Nolan asked.

"I went to jail after jail after jail to talk to these vulnerable victims and learn what it means to be dope sick," Whaley told the judge on Friday. "It's five or six times worse than the worst flu–bodyache, fever–that you will do anything to get another hit."

Stopped by a 16-year-old with 'courage'

Nolan used his past experience as a judge and attorney to intimidate. He served as a district judge in Campbell County in the 1970s and 1980s. He was active in local politics. He told victims he knew judges and powerful people who could put them in jail and take their children way, Whaley said.

It was a 16-year-old girl in December 2016 who stood up to him. She approached her high school counselor to make an allegation of sexual abuse against her family's landlord. The family had lived on Nolan's property in southern Campbell County by a dive bar he owned called the Rabbit Hole.

The prosecutor praised this young girl's courage on Friday.

"We can't imagine the courage that took," Whaley said. "If not for her, none of these problems would have been discovered. None of the other 18 victims would have been found."

The girl, in a letter to the court, said she at first hesitated to come forward, since her grandparents were trying to get Nolan to sell them a house for $500 a month.

"I didn't want to give that up," she wrote. "We finally had enough room for my family. But one day I broke down and told my counselor."

Nolan seeks probation: 'I'm a first-time offender'

Nolan read a statement in court where he asked for forgiveness from God, his victims and his family.

He asked for probation and said he could still contribute to society.

"I'm so sorry for my crimes, even though I'm a first-time offender with a low-risk to re-offend," Nolan said.

Nolan promised to get treatment.

"I resolve to fight my demons and addictions and not repeat my immoral behavior," Nolan said. "Obviously the lack of sound judgment and yielding to physical impulse must never be repeated."

Lape's patience with Nolan had run out by Friday's sentencing.

Lape reminded Nolan that he'd disrupted proceedings, tried to withdraw his plea agreement, fired his attorneys just before he was about to be sentenced in March and been disrespectful to the court.

In a wild court hearing in March, he accused the judge and her family of having a vendetta against him.

Nolan's sentencing on Friday put an end to a very difficult case. The prosecutor had a response to Nolan's quoting the Bible in his plea for leniency.

"Jesus forgave the thieves who were beside him on the crosses," Whaley said. "Forgiveness is always available to those who ask, but Jesus did not recall the punishment of those thieves. Their punishment was imposed."