A prosecutor in the case of an
Iowa teen who was given a suspended 10-year prison sentence for molesting a 1-year-old girl said Thursday that the teen was duped into the act by child pornographers posing online as a teenage girl.
The suspended sentence for Kraigen Grooms, 19, issued Monday has stirred outrage on social media and led to an online petition calling for an Iowa judge's removal.
But Wapellow County Attorney Gary Oldenburger said Grooms' sentence was part of a plea agreement based on a bevy of factors, including that the victim's parents refused to participate in prosecuting Grooms.
"My original intent was to send him to prison for a long time," Oldenburger said. "The girl's parents didn't want Grooms to go to prison; they wanted him to go to rehab."
Court records show that Grooms — who was 16 when the
crime occurred — received a 10-year suspended sentence and five years of supervised release. He was given credit for nearly 2? years spent in a juvenile detention center and, later, adult county jail while he awaited trial. He must register as a sex offender and faces prison time if he reoffends.
Oldenburger said the toddler was not raped or physically harmed; the prosecutor told the Des Moines Register that Grooms was masturbating in the video. He also said Grooms did not know the abuse was being recorded by pornographers.