 |
| Kurtis Peterson |
A judge has sent a man to jail for fifteen years after he had sex with two dogs.
A Michigan sex offender has been sentenced to up to 15 years in jail for having sex several times with two dogs. Kurtis Peterson learned about his fate on Monday as Judge Timothy Hicks went above sentencing guidelines of the State to maintain the repeat offender in a controlled environment to prevent him from raping an animal again.
Under state guidelines, Peterson would have been sentenced to time in a county jail and probation, and since he had already served 321 days in jail, Peterson would have been released almost immediately.
“Raping a person or an animal is a horrific crime and the perpetrator should be stopped at all costs. That being said, this sentence cannot legally be upheld, as state guidelines were put in place for a specific reason. A judge can sentence people to the maximum of what the state guidelines recommend, but the judge cannot legally go above that guideline, therefore, I believe that the appeals court will overturn the 15-year sentence,” Steven Jacoby, 33, of New York City, who is in law school told YourJewishNews.com after learning about the harsh sentence.
37-year-old Peterson of Muskegon pleaded no contest to bestiality, and charged as a habitual offender for the fourth time.
Peterson's attorney told the court that his client has severe mental health problems that require long-term counseling. The judge agreed that the defendant has "a low cognitive ability.”
However, experts from the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry who previously examined him determined that he was sane while sexually abusing the dogs, and he was competent to stand trial.