Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin defended his controversial last-minute pardon of a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old, saying there was no physical evidence of her abuse, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. Bevin’s comments came during a radio interview that focused on the case of Micah Schoettle, 41. Bevin revealed the victim’s relationship to Schoettle and said that the victim’s sister was present during the alleged assaults. The sister has denied the assaults took place. “Both their hymens were intact,” 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.”
Dr. George Nichols, who was Kentucky’s chief medical examiner for 20 years and started a child abuse evaluation system, said “Rape is not proved by hymen penetration Rape is proved by phallic penetration. [Bevin] not only doesn’t know the law … he clearly doesn’t know medicine and anatomy.” Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders, who prosecuted the 2018 case against Schoettle and has called for an investigation into Bevin’s pardon, criticized the former governor’s comments by saying he “is ignorant of the medicine and science in child rape cases.”