Victim Of Sexual Assault: Attacker’s Sentence Too Lenient

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The victim of a brutal rape says a judge gave her attacker too light a sentence.

The victim says every day since 2002 she has lived with the pain of being gruesomely raped. When District Judge Douglas Driggers sentenced her attacker to 25 years in prison instead of the maximum 55, she says she lost faith in the justice system.

Her attacker is33-year-old Noel Sanchez whowas convicted of kidnapping, rape, molestation and aggravated assault. His victim says she wishes the judge would have considered what she went through when he sentenced Sanchez.

When the victim pulled over to the side of the road after getting a flat tire, Sanchez followed her, threatened her with a knife, and assaulted her. Many of the details are too graphic to share here.

A police report says Sanchez slapped her and pulled the victim’s hair during the rape. He made her perform sex acts on him, and hit her when she didn’t comply. The attack went on for several hours. The victim, who has since moved to Florida, says she fears the day Sanchez gets out of prison.

“I’m not able to do my work likeI used to. I can’t be around people. I look at people wondering what they did to somebody. And how are you going to let somebody off like that? If it were your mother, your daughter, sister, or your niece, it’s a whole different story,” said the woman.

“I almost wish, that there were pictures or video of the actual rape. You don’t lose touch of the reality of what that crime is really like. Sometimes you have to close your eyes to realize how severe it is and then impose the maximum sentence,” added District Attorney Susana Martinez.

Martinez says there’s a chance Sanchez will not serve the entirety of his sentence. Judge Douglas Driggershad no comment on the issue.

— Written for broadcast by Doug Wernet

— Formatted for the web by Miguel Martinez