Mother of girl, nine, slams Matt Bevin for pardoning the man convicted of raping her daughter

A mother has slammed former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin for pardoning the man convicted of raping her young daughter. 

Micah Schoettle, 41, was convicted of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse and had been sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2018. He had served just 18 months when Bevin pardoned him.

The girl’s mom, who has not been named to protect her now teenage daughter, told The New York Times: ‘I just kept saying, “How? How? How?” He spent less time in prison than he did molesting my child. 

‘What happened to my child’s rights? To feel safe?’

Bevin, who lost to Democrat Andy Beshear last month in a close race, issued a total of 428 pardons since the November 5 election and leaving office last week, according to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office. One of them was for Schoettle.

Rob Sanders, the prosecutor who put Schoettle away, called the pardon a ‘completely classless move.’ 

Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has defended his controversial pardon of a man who was convicted of raping a child, saying there was no physical evidence of an assault. Bevin’s comments sparked a flurry of harsh criticism, including from the girl’s mother 

Micah Schoettle, 41, was convicted of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse and was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2018. He had served just 18 months when Bevin pardoned him

Micah Schoettle, 41, was convicted of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse and was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2018. He had served just 18 months when Bevin pardoned him

Sanders added: ‘This little girl was raped repeatedly over three years, and I’m not about to call her a liar just because she didn’t call police as soon as it happened.

‘I trust the collective wisdom of 12 citizens of Kenton County much more than I do the ignorant opinions of Matt Bevin.’  

Bevin was forced to defend his controversial pardon of Schoettle, saying there was no physical evidence of an assault. The former governor also said another child who was said to be present during the alleged assaults denied they took place. 

In a radio interview Thursday Bevin said: ‘If you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically. There was zero evidence of that.’ 

‘Just as offensive are all of his ignorant statements that he made about physical injury in assault cases,’ said Sanders, who heads the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office in Kenton County, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.

‘He obviously did not do any research on this matter or he would know that only 2 percent of sexual assault victims show any visible physical injury as a result of the rapes that they´ve suffered,’ Sanders, a Republican, said in an interview Friday.

He added: ‘This is the kind of foolish ignorance that prosecutors have been working for decades to overcome.’ 

Sanders has launched an investigation into Schoettle’s pardon and whether his family’s wealth and political connections played a role in it. Schoettle’s mother was married to R.C. Durr, a wealthy road contractor and property owner whose family now runs a multimillion-dollar charitable foundation. Durr died in 2007.

Kentucky’s former chief medical examiner Dr. George Nichols also criticized Bevin’s comments on the Schoettle pardon in an interview with the Courier Journal, saying the statements were factually inaccurate.

‘He not only doesn’t know the law, in my humble opinion, he clearly doesn’t know medicine and anatomy,’ Nichols said. 

Patrick Baker, a man convicted of homicide and other crimes, was also pardoned by Bevin. His family raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser at their home last year for Bevin to cover debt from his 2015 campaign for governor

Patrick Baker, a man convicted of homicide and other crimes, was also pardoned by Bevin. His family raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser at their home last year for Bevin to cover debt from his 2015 campaign for governor

Schoettle, 41, pictured, who is accused of raping a nine-year-old girl. He was one of the 428 people pardoned by former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin

Schoettle, 41, pictured, who is accused of raping a nine-year-old girl. He was one of the 428 people pardoned by former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin

Bevin’s pardon of Patrick Baker, a man convicted of homicide and other crimes whose family held a fundraiser for Bevin last year, has also sparked fury.        

Baker’s family raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser at their home last year for Bevin to cover debt from his 2015 campaign for governor.

Bevin said that Baker wouldn’t have called for a federal investigation into his case if he wasn’t innocent.

‘These things will come out and the prosecutor and the law enforcement that was involved in that should be very nervous right now because, I’ll tell you what, not everything is kosher with respect to how that all went down,’ Bevin said. ‘Not at all.’

‘I did not kill Donald Mills and my family did not pay for my release,’ Baker said in a statement.

Another man pardoned by Bevin was serving life in prison for killing his infant son. 

The man, 35-year-old Kurt Robert Smith, was also charged in a prison riot while incarcerated, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. 

Smith had admitted during testimony to violently shaking the baby in 2001. The infant died of blunt trauma to the head. 

The newspaper reported Smith also was charged in a 2009 inmate riot at Northpoint Training Center near Danville. Several buildings were burned by inmates and some correctional officers were injured in the riot, which caused about $18 million in damage to the prison.

Bevin, who lost to Democrat Andy Beshear last month in a close race, issued a total of 428 pardons since the November 5 election and leaving office last week

Bevin, who lost to Democrat Andy Beshear last month in a close race, issued a total of 428 pardons since the November 5 election and leaving office last week

Elizabeth Stakelbeck, who convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill her ex-husband and his new wife in a 2013 was also pardoned. She is a friend of Bevin's sister

Dayton Jones was jailed over an attack on teen boy at a party in 2014. Jones, now 25, was not seen a video of the sexual assault but pleaded guilty with three others. Bevin pardoned him

Elizabeth Stakelbeck, who convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill her ex-husband and his new wife in a 2013 was also pardoned. She is a friend of Bevin’s sister. Dayton Jones was jailed over an attack on teen boy at a party in 2014. Jones, now 25, was not seen a video of the sexual assault but pleaded guilty with three others. Bevin pardoned him,

At least one of Bevin’s own cabinet chiefs pushed back on some of the pardons. 

The former head of the state’s Justice and Public Safety cabinet wrote a December 6 memo saying he had ‘serious reservations’ about some of the pardons Bevin was considering, the Courier Journal reported. 

John Tilley outlined some violent offenses and said in the memo he could not ‘in good conscience’ recommend pardons for those individuals. 

Those included Kurt Robert Smith’s case; Delmar Partin, who was convicted of beheading an ex-lover and stuffing her body in a barrel; and Kathy Harless, who was sentenced to life in prison for throwing her newborn baby in a cesspool. Bevin pardoned all three.

Elizabeth Stakelbeck, who convicted of trying to hire a hit man to kill her ex-husband and his new wife in a 2013 was also pardoned. She is a friend of Bevin’s sister. 

Dayton Jones was jailed over an attack on teen boy at a party in 2014. Jones, now 25, was not seen a video of the sexual assault but pleaded guilty with three others. 

Bevin pardoned him, saying: ‘It was not possible he could have been there doing this. There was no evidence showing that he was.’   

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