Iowa Independent: Blogger Kyle Payne sentenced to six months in county jail
Payne received 360 days, with 180 days suspended on each of two counts of invasion of privacy, a serious misdemeanor charge. He was also given one year of probation on each count. On the charge of 2nd degree attempted burglary, a felony, Payne received an indeterminate term of prison not to exceed five years, with incarceration suspended. He will placed on probation for three years.
In addition, under a new portion of Iowa law that involves sexually-related crimes, Payne was given a 10 year period of parole. That sentence begins at the end of his regular term of probation. Because of the nature of his crime, he will not be required to register as a sex offender in the state of Iowa.
We thought that his plea bargain was all about avoiding official “sex offender” registration, and I guess this particular sex offender succeeded in that. I hope, at least, that every rape counselling and women’s assistance service in the country knows his name and face, and knows not to take him on as a “volunteer”.
An exchange from the sentencing hearing:
Quoting repeatedly from Payne’s most recent blog post and pointing to what he described as a “narcissistic” tendancies, Buena Vista County Attorney Dave Patton requested the court sentence Payne to prison. “[His blog post] indicates that he believes this is not all about the victim,” Patton said. “He believes it is all about him.”
F. Montgomery Brown, who served as Payne’s attorney, argued for a deferment while documenting how “the blogosphere lit into” Payne. “Why was this kid so sensational?” Brown asked the court. “Because he made a spectacle of himself, in part. … But being a hypocrite is not a sentencing factor.”
Several feminist bloggers have written about the case because Payne had been so public with not only his feminist leanings, but his advocacy on behalf of victims of rape and sexual assault.
“He can’t be penalized for exercising his Constitutional rights,” Brown said of the blog post. “Frankly, I’m asking the court to be creative.”
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[edit] More:
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Edit 2, 27 Aug: Ideologically Impure notes that Kyle Payne has updated his blog. Unsurprisingly, it is full of ragingly narcissistic bullshit, yet another faked apology, and introspective musing about what hard work it is walking around not sexually assaulting people.
Please know that I take what I did very seriously and will do everything I can to make sure nothing like this happens again. This case has provided an extremely necessary wake-up call as I learn how to make responsible decisions, how to hold myself accountable for wrongdoings, and most importantly, how to act in accordance with my own professed values and beliefs. I sincerely appreciate everyone who has participated in this process to ensure that this act of male dominance does not, like so many others, go overlooked and unchallenged.
Dude needs him some Yoda. Kyle: Do, or do not. There is no try. And shut the fuck up you should.
Categories: gender & feminism, law & order, violence
Friday Hoyden: Gillian Triggs 
DUFC #69 
Advising women to prevent their own rapes is not brave or edgy or helpful 
Hoyden About Town 
What truly boggles the mind is how the defense attorney thought that would work. Totally grasping at straws with the ‘my client’s an asshole but they’re making him look like more of an asshole’ bit.
I’m very disappointed that he doesn’t have to register, but I am glad to see that he didn’t escape a prison sentence entirely.
Presumably he will now have a criminal record which should make it harder for him to find work in victim counselling.
Perhaps I am dense, but what *could* the defence attorney have meant be wanting the Court to be “creative”??
I’m going to write about this tomorrow, but thanks so much for remembering to check in on this. It completely slipped my mind.
With the ten year parole on top of the three year probation, am I right in thinking that makes 13 years where any mis-step on his part that breaches the conditions of probation or parole could trigger incarceration?
I suspect it was this aspect of the sentencing that the attorney wanted to the court to be creative with.
Possibly ‘be creative’ means ‘come up with a new and interesting way to make this the victim’s fault, thus sparing my client even though he’s admitted it all over the blogosphere’?
I just hope he can restrain himself in the future.
Also: It’s awful! The women picked on him for sexually assaulting a woman! That’s unfair. 😦
I mean, next thing you know, women will be getting divorces, the right to vote, and owning property or something.
Hurrah! I’m glad that the prosecutor picked up on the blog thing – what better way to demonstrate a lack of remorse or understanding of the depth of his actions than weeks’ worth of blog posts?
@fuckpoliteness: I’m guessing “be creative” meant, “be one of those New Age-y judges and sentence my client to, oh, posting an apology on YouTube or something”.
I just got political correct boring tea up my nose.
Wow. What could this attorney have gotten away with if there hadn’t been such an outcry on the blogosphere?
Hey, thanks for the link! It does, however, appear that you’ve got me linked for both my blog (Editorializing) and The Curvature. Cara probably doesn’t like that as much. 😉
Ls last blog post..Kyle Payne sentenced to six months in county jail!
Quite right, L: I’ve fixed the mis-paste.
Payne’s attorney wanted the judge to drop the jail time. Payne did touch her bare breasts and photos proved it, yet they dropped the assualt part of the charge. That was the hardest part for our family (the victum’s) to understand. The storm lake pilot did a great covering the story and even revealed more info that shows how Sick he is… And guess what???? He blogged again.. and you guessed it..he is still playing the “poor meeeeee” card!
tig–I’m not certain if these are concurrent sentences or not; if not, then it’s ten years, at the least.
The news article does say that the parole period will not begin until the probation period ends, so it appears then that it does mean 13 years after he is released from jail where any misdemeanour could trigger further incarceration, and where he will presumably have to disclose his probationary/parolee status to any potential employer.
Perhaps that attorney really should not have challenged the court to be creative in this case.
tig–on the second charge, he’s now a convicted felon, which you have to disclose in many job applications here in the US.
I’d heard of that, but forgotten. That’s not something you hear about much here in Oz, but I’m not sure whether that’s because there simply aren’t the same disclosure requirements for employment or whether the lack of general comment about it is more attributable to our far lower rates of incarceration.
Actually, part of it is because the workplace can possibly get a tax break for hiring a felon. There’s a rather funny (if problematic) episode of the US version of The Office that addresses this issue.
That said, having done a bit of HR in healthcare in the past, I honestly am pretty certain that Payne will not be working in any form of counseling any time in the next several years, if ever. We ran criminal background checks on every volunteer and applicant that received an interview.
Curse you, Lauredhel, now I crave tea. Does Dilmah count as PC?
@R Jensen: OH MY GOD his ”update”. Could the man be more bloody deluded?
I wish he HAD left comments open so I could post a mere tl;dr. Sorry, Kyle, it’s waaaay too late for another hearty helping of your self-aggrandizing bullshit. If your lawyer was worth a damn, he’d have told you not to do that kind of thing anymore.
But would Kyle have listened, even if the lawyer did tell him?
I really liked the Mum’s response:
“You are a sick young man,” the mother said. “I think you’ve done this before and will do it again. Our family does not accept your apology. We do not care about your self-inflicted suffering. You reap what you sow.”
I hate this idea that “I will say the magic words, and PFF ALA PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICHES, it’s all okay”
It’s all about him, QoT. All of it.
I am really disturbed by the way he seems to enjoy how this woman he victimized talks about how he assaulted her. And I remember that book he kept where he wrote what women who came to him confided.
Lisa Harneys last blog post..Oppression and Hope
Oh my. There should be MOAR of this. I love that people have seen through this arsehole instead of “supporting” him and “travelling” with him on his “journey”.
Pedantry: he’s going to jail, not prison.
“Payne received 360 days, with 180 days suspended on each of two counts of invasion of privacy, a serious misdemeanor charge. Because the two sentences are expected to run concurrent, he will most likely serve six months in the county facility [jail]. He was also given one year of probation on each count. On the charge of 2nd degree attempted burglary, a felony, Payne received an indeterminate term of prison not to exceed five years, with incarceration suspended.”
“Judge Courtney, acknowledging his sentence as a compromise that would please no one, said he opted for county jail time instead of a prison term because of both Payne’s age and the fact that he had no prior criminal record.”
(From the Iowa Independent article linked above).
I understand (but not very well or clearly) that jail and prison in the USA are two very different things – I think that prison is much worse.
The length of the sentence seems to be (according to this site) the main factor. Link
“To prevent this from happening ever again.”
Happening? Happening?! Crooks do this fake apology bullshit all the time. “I’m sorry for what happened.” Whatever. What, was he an observer? He was the attacker! He thinks it just happened, that it was outside himself, that it was… a thing. It was the weather, it was unstoppable, it was…..How far does he have to go with the excuses till it was all her fault?
How many times has he done this and told himself afterward that ‘it just happened.’ It’s like a teenage girl trying to reconcile society’s demands by not carrying BC for sex; if you plan for it, you’re a slut. If it just happens, you were ‘swept away.’ If you’re a guy, well, you’re not a rapist then. Same excuse, different worlds.
ginmars last blog post..Dammit, Hills
Dude needs him some Yoda. Kyle: Do, or do not. There is no try. And shut the fuck up you should.
Shit yes. It completely blows my mind that he is still going on like some bloody alien force entered his body and made him do what he did.
@David: You’re right. Jail is local, prison is part of a state system. You sleep off a bender in jail, you do hard time in prison.
Depending on where you are, jail can be less than a walk in the park, but my research into Buena Vista County indicates that it’s pretty rural; not exactly like my local county jail, which I’ve heard is pretty rough.