CW : SA
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa authorities say an 18-year-old sex trafficking victim who pleaded guilty to killing a man she said raped her escaped from a women's center where she was serving her probation sentence.
Pieper Lewis was seen walking out of the building at the Fresh Start Women's Center in Des Moines shortly after 6:15 a.m. Friday, and at some point that day her GPS monitor was cut off, according to a probation violation report.
A warrant was issued for Lewis' arrest and the probation report asked for her deferred judgment to be revoked and have her original sentence imposed, KCCI reported. She could face up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors had called the probation sentence she was given in September merciful for a teen who endured horrible abuse, although some questioned the $150,000 restitution she was ordered to pay. A GoFundMe campaign raised over $560,000 to cover the restitution and pay for her other needs.
Polk County Judge David Porter told Lewis that her probation sentence “was the second chance you asked for. You don’t get a third," the Des Moines Register reported.
If Lewis had successfully completed five years of closely supervised probation her prison sentence would have been expunged.
The prosecutor likely carries a lot of blame here -- they generally have final say over how cases get charged. They're also the ones who can decide to decline charging a case at all.