Ex-U.S lawmaker jailed 20 years for raping legislative intern

A former U.S lawmaker, Aaron von Ehlinger, who represented Idaho, has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of raping a 19-year-old legislative intern.

Von Ehlinger who was convicted on Wednesday by 4th District Judge Michael Reardon of the Ada County Court, must serve at least eight years before he will be eligible for parole, according to Reardon.

The former lawmaker had earlier been convicted of felony rape in April, a year after he resigned from his seat in the House of Representatives after an Ethics Committee recommended that he be banned from the state house.

While reading out the judgement, Reardon said von Ehlinger had failed to show empathy or remorse for his crime, and that it was clear he was not ready for a sex-offender treatment.

“The sentence would at least deter von Ehlinger from committing another crime while he is incarcerated,” Judge Reardon said.

Read also:Father bags three life imprisonment terms for raping his three daughters

“You have a pattern of explaining, excusing, deflecting and blaming others for the circumstances you find yourself in,” he added, addressing the convict directly.

The judge also ordered von Ehlinger to register as a sex offender and placed him under a no-contact order lasting through 2055.

Investigations into von Ehlinger’s case began in March 2021 after the unnamed intern told a state house supervisor that the then Republican lawmaker had raped her at his apartment after the two had dinner at a Boise restaurant.

But all through the investigation and trial, Von Ehlinger has maintained the sex was consensual.

The victim who testified at the sentencing hearing and during the proceeding via a recorded deposition, described how her autonomy was “ripped violently away” and how she sometimes experiences panic attacks just from hearing von Ehlinger’s name.

“I am here now. I am here scared, I am here frightened, I am so petrified, but I will not be intimidated into silence so that another rapist can slip through the cracks of this justice system

“I hope he rots in pieces behind those cold metal bars,” she said.

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