Police Constable, deejay and drum bandleader and now convicted rapist Crispin Jeffries Jr. will have to do 8 years of hard time. It's the minimum sentence and it was handed down by Justice Adolph Lucas this morning in the Supreme Court. A calm and collected Crispin Jr. stood in court this morning and begged Justice Lucas to be as lenient as possible. Crispin Jr. said that with tears in his heart, he is still convinced that he is innocent. He remained calm after the sentence and as he was being carted away to begin his 8-year sentence told Keith Swift this is the start of a new chapter of his life.
Keith Swift,
What do you think of the sentence?
Crispin Jeffries Jr., Convicted of Rape
"The sentence is the sentence. It just simply means that that chapter of my life is over with and this is the start of a new and better chapter. That's all."
Again, 8 years is the minimum sentence for a rape conviction. Justice Lucas stressed that he imposed the sentenced based on the evidence presented during the trial which suggests it was not a violent rape. Lucas also based his sentence on mitigation pleas from the all-star line up of character witnesses which the defense paraded this morning. Chief among them was the Commissioner of Police Gerald Westby. Westby, who read from a prepared statement, said that he is a close colleague of Crispin Jeffries Sr. and begged the court to be lenient. If you are wondering why the nation's top cop would beg mitigation for a convicted rapist, so did we.
Gerald Westby, Commissioner of Police
"I would like to say publicly that I extend my sympathy to the victim and the family. I too am a father and I am totally against any exploitation of females in any shape or form. I have daughters too. But I think that while the indiscretion of P.C. Jeffries cannot be overlooked on the night in question, whatever indiscretion he may have done, or may not have done, he was a good police officer and all I went there for was to ask the court's mercy respectfully. He was a very good police officer. Yes he may have erred the night in question but I just went there to ask the court for mercy. But that is not to say I condone exploitation of women in any form and I want to make that empathically clear to the public."
Crispin Jr.'s close friend Clifford Barrow and the principal of Excelsior Junior High School Gayle Thompson also took the stand and begged the court for leniency in sentencing. In delivering the sentence Justice Lucas said that a man must ultimately know when to apply the brakes.
Crispin Jr. was convicted last week of raping a 20-year-old girl at the Diamond Motel in March of 2004. He and the girl shared a room at the motel after a night of partying in Hattieville with two other couples including her sister. The victim claims he raped her while Jeffries denied ever having sex with her.
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