Indiana News

Ex-Hammond Megachurch Pastor Seeks Lower Sentence

HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) _ The former pastor of a northwestern Indiana megachurch is asking a judge to reduce his 12-year sentence for having sex with a teenage congregant because he claims the girl was sexually experienced and aggressive.
 
The Times reports an attorney for Jack Schaap filed a memorandum this week in U.S. District Court in Hammond asking to present new evidence about the girl's “prior extensive sexual experience'' and her use of alcohol and marijuana.
 
Schaap pleaded guilty last year to transporting the girl, then 16, to Illinois and Michigan for sexual encounters. He also had sex with her in his office at First Baptist Church of Hammond.
 
A spokesman for the church says it feels the court treated Schaap fairly.
 
Prosecutors have until July 3 to respond to the memorandum. 

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