The Montana teacher alleged of raping a 14-year-old student had been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on Friday.

Stacey Dean Rambold, a 55-year-old teacher at Billings Senior High School, confessed last year to a single count of sexual intercourse without consent in the rape case filed by the family of Cherice Moralez. Court records that the victim had been 14 years old when the incident occurred in 2007. She subsequently committed suicide in 2010.

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Prior to the 10-year sentencing, the case had been widely featured in the news as the previous judge, Judge G. Todd Baugh, appeared to have partially blamed the rape on the 14-year-old freshman. The said judge had been penalized with a 31-day suspension and public censure. He will reportedly step down from his post after the expiry of his term in January.

Subsequently, a new judge had been assigned to conduct the resentencing of Rambold as the previous one, which merely required the 55-year-old to serve one month in prison, had been overturned by the state Supreme Court in April.

"The criminal justice system worked today," said Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito, who also shared his satisfaction over the resentencing hearing that resulted in additional five years of imprisonment initially decided to be suspended.

"The last thing we want to do is sit here in the criminal justice system and say, 'What is the age?' It doesn't matter. Fourteen is way too young," he stated. "There has to be punishment. ... Punishment means prison," Twito added.

On the other hand, Rambold's lawyer, Jay Lansing, expressed disappointment that his goal to have a two-year sentence for his client had not been granted. His goal was to have Rambold be in the custody of the Department of Corrections for two years, then have the remaining 13-year sentence be suspended. In this manner, convicted sex offender would be serving his sentence in a community setting instead of a prison cell.

During his argument, he highlighted the facts that Rambold had been deemed by the state as a low risk repeat offender. Lansing also pointed out that his client already went through sex offender treatment. In addition, Rambold had no previous criminal record.

Despite these purported mitigating factors, however, Judge Spaulding believed that the nature of Rambold's crime offset all the aforementioned circumstances.

"I considered your abuse and exploitation of your position of trust as a teacher, and specifically Cherice's teacher," the judge said to Rambold.

In contrast, Baugh clearly gave ample consideration on the alleged conduct of the victim towards Rambold in determining the penalty to be imposed. The previous judge apparently placed significance over the video-taped interviews of investigators with the 14-year-old victim during the first sentencing trial. 

TagsMontana, Rape, student, teacher, high school