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		</div><h6><span style="color: #3d3535;"><strong>Louisiana District Court Judge Bruce Bennett made the startling offer Thursday at sentencing of a rapist in Baton Rouge</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #3d3535;"><strong>Judge Bennett sentenced Sedrick Hills, 44, to 12 years in prison for raping the woman, whose identity is being protected, in 2003 when she was just 15</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #3d3535;"><strong>The judge sparked outrage by offering to lessen the rapist&#8217;s prison sentence if he paid his victim $150,000 as restitution</strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #3d3535;"><strong>The outraged victim now 31, who Hills raped 16 years ago, when she was just 15, refused the offer, saying &#8216;I don&#8217;t think money is going to provide any restitution for what he&#8217;s done&#8217; </strong></span></h6>
<h6><span style="color: #3d3535;"><strong>Hill was convicted in 2018 after new DNA evidence linked him to the crime</strong></span></h6>
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<h6 class="imageCaption"><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-334942" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Bruce-Benneth-2.jpg" alt="Bruce Benneth 2.JPG" width="701" height="618" />Louisiana District Court Judge Bruce Bennett [photo], last week outraged a rape victim by saying he would give her rapist a lower sentence if the man agreed to pay her $150,000</strong></h6>
<p><span style="color: var(--color-text);">A judge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has outraged a rape victim when he offered her rapist the option of a lesser sentence if the man who raped her as a minor agreed to pay her $150,000.</span></p>
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<p class="mol-para-with-font">Judge Bruce Bennett sentenced Sedrick Hills, 44, to 12 years in prison last week for raping the woman, whose identity is being protected, in 2003 when she was just 15.<br />
He was convicted last year after new DNA evidence linked him to the crime.<br />
Bennett said that he would shorten his sentence if the victim agreed to accept $150,000 in restitution from him.<br />
She refused the offer this week, saying no amount of money would excuse what he had done.<br />
&#8216;I don&#8217;t think money is going to provide any restitution for what he&#8217;s done,&#8217; the woman, now 31, said last Thursday after a hearing in the case.<br />
It is unclear if Hills has access to $150,000 to give her.<br />
Both the prosecution and the defense said they were surprised by the offer.<br />
The victim had read her impact statement in court, saying Hills took at least 16 years of her life entreating the judge to exact the same punishment on him.</p>
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<h6 class="mobile-gallery-icon"><strong><strong><span style="color: var(--color-text);"><img class="alignnone wp-image-334938" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Louisiana-District-Court-1.jpg" alt="Louisiana District Court 1.jpg" width="735" height="466" /></span></strong></strong><strong style="color: var(--color-text);">Judge Bruce Bennett was presiding in this </strong><strong><span style="color: var(--color-text);">courthouse in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at Thursday&#8217;s sentencing when he made the startling offer. The victim read her moving impact statement in the same courtroom last week </span></strong></h6>
<div class="mobile-gallery-icon"><span style="color: var(--color-text);">&#8216;This whole experience has been like a movie, but a bad movie, a horror movie,&#8217; she said. &#8216;I&#8217;ve been fighting this over half my life. I&#8217;m tired. I&#8217;m angry.<br />
&#8216;Stuff like this deteriorates a person. It deteriorates who I am. I&#8217;m still trying to figure out who I am,&#8217; she said.<br />
Thursday&#8217;s sentencing ended months of delays in the case prompted by a black female juror&#8217;s allegation that a white male juror made racist remarks about Hills, who is black.<br />
Bennett ruled last month that the juror&#8217;s allegation was not corroborated by other jurors, each of whom had testified at a hearing ordered by a state appeals court.<br />
The judge refused to grant Hills a new trial.<br />
The defendant Sedrick Hills was formally charged in 2014 after DNA evidence linked him to the sexual assault, Bennett said.<br />
He was convicted in August 2018 of forcible rape and other sexual assault-related charges. </span></div>
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Louisiana judge, Bruce Bennett, controversially offers to lower rapist’s 12-year prison sentence if he pays his victim $150,000 – Outraged victim rejects offer to defendant, 44, who raped her as a 15-year-old
