A fundraiser for an Iowa teen who was a victim of human trafficking and convicted of killing her rapist, has easily surpassed the $150,000 restitution fee she was ordered to pay his family.
As of Friday morning, a GoFundMe account set up on behalf of Pieper Lewis has collected nearly $450,000 from people who say they're disgusted by the court-enforced restitution order.
The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury for killing Zachary Brooks in 2020. According to Lewis, Brooks, who was 37 at the time, repeatedly raped the then-15-year-old in the weeks before his death. She told the court that eventually, something in her snapped and, in a fit of rage, she stabbed Brooks at least 30 times.
During a sentencing hearing Tuesday, Polk County District judge David M. Porter deferred two 10-year prison terms, ruling that Lewis's time in juvenile detention was enough time served, and ordered her to five years probation.
Porter addressed the unfairness of forcing Lewis to provide monetary compensation to her own abuser's family, saying he had "no other option." The restitution is mandatory under Iowa law, and the state is not among those that have established so-called safe harbor laws, which provide varying levels of criminal immunity for trafficking victims. Read More