Pastor Denied Reduced Sentence, SNAP Responds

SNAP
August 27, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/in_pastor_denied_reduced_sentence_snap_responds

A former Hammond Baptist pastor, who is serving a 12 year prison sentence for child sexual abuse, has had his petition to overturn his sentenced denied. We are glad the judge saw through this farce and upheld this rightly deserved sentence.

Rev. Jack Schaap was charged with using his position at the church to abuse an underage girl. He voluntarily agreed to a plea deal, and later claimed that he had a bad lawyer and his sentence should be tossed out. Gail Riplinger, a noted religious scholar, in a letter to the judge, wrote that since Schaap is a well educated man, with many lawyer friends, “(his) ‘assertion that he could not understand the words regarding the sentencing seems preposterous.’” We applaud Riplinger for speaking up.

It is always disheartening when predators attempt to avoid justice through legal loopholes or by playing ‘dumb’. We are glad he failed in his goal and that he must serve his sentence. We also hope that First Baptist Church of Hammond aggressively reaches out to anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse at the hands of Schaap.