Rapist gets probation for attack on 13-year-old at Baptist church camp in Oklahoma

SULPHUR — In an unusual plea deal, a Spencer man has been sentenced to 15 years on probation after pleading guilty to brutally raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl at Falls Creek church camp.

Benjamin Lawrence Petty, 36, tied rope around the girl's wrists, raped her and then threatened her with physical harm if she told anyone, according to the criminal charge. He was at the camp as a cook at the time of the 2016 offense.

Murray County Assistant District Attorney David Pyle, who negotiated the guilty plea, said Petty is "legally blind" and that was a major factor in his decision not to insist on prison time.

Petty was given the suspended sentence by District Judge Wallace Coppedge on Jan. 19 after entering a negotiated guilty plea to first-degree rape, forcible sodomy and rape by instrumentation. All three are felonies.