Everyone involved in the November rape trial of David Sapp contends 1st District Judge Craig Kosonen never said a developmentally disabled victim was "slightly raped."
Kosonen said he never made the comment at the trial, during the December sentencing nor to a reporter.Sapp's defense attorney, the Shoshone County prosecutor and Kosonen all are fascinated by the controversy that has arisen since the misquote appeared in the headline of a Washington newspaper two weeks ago.
Women's groups, letter-writers, and two Washington newspaper columnists rushed to attack the judge for his insensitivity to rape victims.
"He never said it," said prosecuting attorney Dan McGee, who takes issue with the judge's sentence in the case but not Kosonen's legal integrity or sensitivity toward rape victims. "I don't agree with any of the clamor that's been made about the misquote. It's unfair to the judge, it's unfair to the prosecution and to society in general that the judge is being chastised for a statement he never made."
Kosonen sentenced Sapp to prison for one to six years, but retained jurisdiction pending a six-month evaluation of Sapp at the North Idaho Correctional Institution.