Schaap Seeks Reduced Sentence in Sexual Abuse Case

By Jim Masters
NWI Times
July 8, 2014

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/schaap-seeks-reduced-sentence-in-sexual-abuse-case/article_8e2ff4e5-3ee4-58b6-bc85-7f037acd88f7.html

Former Hammond First Baptist Church Pastor Jack Schaap is seeking to have his 12-year prison sentence for child molesting overturned.

HAMMOND | Jack Schaap, the imprisoned former First Baptist Church of Hammond pastor, says in court documents he would have gone to trial on charges he sexually abused a 16-year-old church member rather than plead guilty if he was aware of how harsh his sentence would be.

Schaap, who is petitioning to have his 12-year sentence vacated, contends his attorney advised him his sentence would be a maximum 120 months if he pleaded guilty, more likely between three and four years, and perhaps as low as 18 months.

Schaap’s legal brief offers Sixth Amendment claims he had ineffective legal counsel. Upon entering his guilty plea, Schaap told Judge Rudy Lozano he did not realize his actions — which included having the girl driven from Illinois to Michigan to engage in sexual activity — were illegal.

A brief filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster seeking denial of Schaap’s appeal points to contradictions in his statements during sentencing proceedings in which “he acknowledged he faced a minimum 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.”

Koster notes Schaap “also made a nonbinding recommendation to the court that he be sentenced to a term of 10 year’s incarceration,” and that under oath he stated his legal counsel had not made any promise or assurance regarding his possible sentence in an effort to induce or cause him to enter a guilty plea.

Furthermore, Schaap was advised he gave up all rights to an appeal by accepting the plea agreement, court documents stated.

Lozano has yet to render a decision on the matter.

Schaap presided over a faith-based empire of thousands of worshipers belonging to Hammond’s downtown “megachurch” and as president of Hyles-Anderson College.

His inappropriate relationship with the teen was reportedly discovered when a church deacon caught a glimpse of a cellphone picture of Schaap and the girl kissing.