A US district who jailed an Indiana pastor for 12 years for having sex with an under-age girl is expected to consider an appeal against the sentence next month.

Former mega-church pastor Jack A Schaap, 56, (above) is asking judge Rudy Lozano to overturn his 12-year sentence:

Due to the aggressiveness of (the girl) that inhibited impulse control …

According to this report, Schaap is taking a risk with his appeal. Said one lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous:

Judge Lozano may give him more time.

Schaap pleaded guilty to transporting a female student of the church’s high school to Illinois and Michigan for sexual encounters. He also had sex with her in his church office in June and July 2012.

The girl wrote in her victim impact statement.

I was raised by my parents and teachers to trust and obey my pastor. He was a celebrity to me, a father figure and a man of God. As my pastor, I sought guidance and counseling from (Schaap) when I was in need of help.

Schaap is being held in the Federal Correctional Institute in Ashland, Kentucky, and he isn’t eligible for release until April 20, 2023.

Schaap’s attorney, Charles Murray, of Bonita Springs, Florida, has filed a court memorandum asking to present new evidence and portraying the girl, who was age 16 at the beginning of her sexual encounters with Schaap, as having “had prior extensive sexual experience” in addition to using alcohol and marijuana.

Murray argues:

No doubt exists that (Schaap) should have resisted (her) advances, but (Schaap) submits his actions did not serve to destroy (her) in the manner that often occurs when underage individuals are victimized.

Schaap’s new pleading doesn’t sit well with his former megachurch, the First Baptist Church of Hammond. Ed Lapina, First Baptist’s administrative pastor said:

We stand with the court on the judgment. We felt the court was very fair and just in its judgment … The girl was a troubled girl. Her past was a tough past. She came here for help and that should have been our goal. It should have been (Schaap’s) goal. That didn’t end up happening, and so he is taking responsibility for that now with his prison term.

Schaap, a married man with two children, was pastor at the 15,000-member church  until his relalationship with the girl was discovered, and he was sacked.

The victim’s parents told the court they believed their daughter was safe going to the church and its schools, which she had done since kindergarten. The father is quoted in a court document stating:

The rule of our house was that the pastor was God’s representative on Earth. Always do what the pastor says.

The girl wrote:

(Schaap) violated my trust. But when it was being violated, I didn’t even know it because he made me believe what we were doing was OK and right in the eyes of God. When I asked him if it was wrong, he told me no and that I was his precious gift from God. I felt so special when he texted me from the holy altar during his sermons.

Jill Koster, assistant US attorney in the case, said in a sentencing memorandum last year:

The government submits that any 16- to 17-year-old girl placed in the victim’s vulnerable shoes and showered with attention and affection from (Schaap) whom she practically been taught to worship would have ended up in exactly the same position as the victim in this case, in love with (Schaap), the ultimate hypocrite.

Lozano has given the US attorney’s office until July 3 to file a response to the appeal. Schaap will then have until August 4 to file any reply to prosecutors’ response.