Kraigen Grooms, 19, of Iowa, will only receive five years of supervised release after pleading guilty to raping a 2-year-old girl in April 2013.
Grooms was arrested in March 2014 after the website MissingCases.com helped identify him from photos he posted on pornography sites online. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement sought help from the public in identifying Grooms from pictures and video posted online. Investigations into the assault revealed that the attack was premeditated and that Grooms was also planning an attack on a 3-year-old boy.
Initially charges with second-degree sexual abuse, Grooms pled guilty to one count of engaging in a lascivious act with a child. The judge, Myron Gookin, has come under heavy fire for not requiring prison time. A whitehouse.gov petition has been created in order to get him fired.
Gary Oldenburger, the county attorney for Wapello County, claims that Grooms is not a high risk candidate for additional offenses: “If Grooms was sent to prison for a long period of time rather than being sentenced to probation, he more than likely would be a greater risk to the community after his release than he will be after serving the sentence he received.”
Grooms will be required to register as a sex offender for life. He spent a total of 2 years and four months in jail before pleading guilty in July.He also received two mental health evaluations while he was in custody.
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