BILLINGS, Montana — A teacher who spent a month in prison for the rape of a 14-year-old student was due back to court Friday to be re-sentenced after the original judge was censured over comments that placed some responsibility on the victim. Defendant Stacey Dean Rambold is seeking the minimum of two years in prison, but prosecutors want to impose a 10-year sentence for the 2007 rape of freshman Cherice Moralez at Billings Senior High School.
Moralez killed herself in 2010 while the case was pending. Without their primary witness, prosecutors struck a deal with Rambold that initially allowed him to avoid prison altogether, but he was imprisoned for a month after violating this agreement. His month-long sentence ordered by Judge G. Todd Baugh was later declared illegal by the state Supreme Court. In a letter to the court, Rambold, a 55-year-old former business teacher, said: "No one can really appreciate and understand what it feels like to have so many people actually hate you and be disgusted by you. I do not mention this for the sake of sympathy, but it has been hard."
IN-DEPTH
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