Global Courant 2023-06-01 05:02:20
A teen sex trafficking victim who stabbed to death the man she accused of abusing her was issued a probation order Wednesday, telling an Iowa judge she now has a support system in place to keep her on track.
Prosecutors agreed that Pieper Lewis should continue her probation rather than face incarceration. Polk County attorney Kimberly Graham told the judge that her office “sees her as a human being,” that she is vulnerable to being victimized again and that there is a low risk that she will commit more violence.
Lewis, now 18, had been given a 20-year sentence for the fatal stabbing in June 2020 of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, who Lewis said was trafficked against her will and forced to have sex multiple times at the age of 15 to have. She pleaded guilty in September to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury and was sentenced to probation.
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Polk County Judge David Porter then ruled that Lewis’s charges would have been struck from her record if she had complied with the terms of her probation. That decision was withdrawn on Wednesday.
“I indicated to you last year that you asked for a second chance, you don’t get a third. I stand by that,” Porter told Lewis. “There are consequences for your actions. You have now been convicted of two crimes.”
Lewis admitted in court that she had violated the terms of her agreement when she cut her GPS monitor in November and left the Fresh Start Women’s Center without permission. She was arrested days later and has been incarcerated in the Polk County Jail ever since.
Lewis wrote a letter to Porter, dated April 5, describing a “success plan” for probation, according to court documents.
Pieper Lewis (right), a teenage sex trafficking victim who fatally stabbed alleged abuser Zachary Brooks (left), has been sentenced to probation after being incarcerated for violating the terms of a previous sentence. (Henderson’s Highland Park Funeral Home/ Zach Boyden Holmes via AP)
“The team I have now is my greatest support and I have to stop fighting them,” Lewis said in a statement to the judge on Wednesday. “I refuse to fail and I refuse to let the system fail me. I have developed a plan and an option so that this time I will succeed.”
At Wednesday’s hearing, defense witnesses described the importance of trauma-informed care for victims of child sex trafficking and the research showed a high tendency to run away among this population.
The type of court-ordered placement could “determine this young person’s entire future,” said Yasmin Vafa, executive director of Rights4Girls, who testified virtually. “Being in a placement that has a prison-like atmosphere can greatly exacerbate that trauma.”
IOWA TEEN WHO KILLED HER SUSPECTED RAPIST ESCAPES CONFIRMATION AT PROBATION CENTER
Her lawyers were visibly emotional and called themselves her family, while Porter questioned the teen’s ability to commit to the rehabilitation plan and deal with criminal tendencies.
Matthew Sheeley, one of Lewis’ lawyers, said they were disappointed that she had been formally sentenced on Wednesday, but that she was ultimately relieved by the continuation of her probation.
Lewis will remain in prison until the Department of Corrections finds a suitable facility.
The Associated Press doesn’t usually name sexual assault victims, but Lewis agreed that her name had been used before in stories about her case.
Global Courant
A similar case in Wisconsin made its way to that state’s Supreme Court, which ruled that a woman accused of killing a man who sexually assaulted her could use the fact that she was a sex trafficker as a defense in her criminal case. That case is on.
