Des Moines sex trafficking victim Pieper Lewis pleads guilty to escaping women's center
Pieper Lewis, the Des Moines sex trafficking victim who received a deferred judgment for stabbing to death a man she said had raped her repeatedly, pleaded guilty to an escape charge Thursday morning for leaving a Des Moines transitional center, where she was serving a term of probation, without permission.
The plea sets the stage for her to be sentenced to prison for up to 21 years at a hearing later this month.
Lewis, now 18, received the deferred judgment in September after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury in the killing of Zachary Brooks, a Des Moines man she had been trafficked to when she was 15. Judge David Porter ordered her to serve five years probation and sent her to the Des Moines Fresh Start Women's Center.
On Nov. 4, for reasons yet to be explained, Lewis cut off a GPS tracking device she was required to wear and walked away from the facility. Police found and arrested her five days later.
On Thursday morning, Lewis appeared in Polk County court briefly to enter her plea. The charge is a serious misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of $2,560.
Lewis, wearing a uniform from the Polk County Jail, where she has been held since her arrest, made no statement in the hearing, responding to questions from Judge Becky Goettsch with yes and no answers.
Goettsch said Lewis will be sentenced at 9 a.m. March 23 at the same time as a hearing previously scheduled to decide if she will go to prison for violating her probation.
Opinion: Pieper, welcome to the Survivors Club
Lewis could be sentenced to up to 10 years on each of the two charges in Brooks' death and an additional year for escape. Her trafficker still has not been charged.
Her case received national attention after a Des Moines Register investigative report found no record that police had investigated the sex trafficking allegations, though sex with a 15-year-old is a crime in Iowa. During her sentencing hearing, prosecutors acknowledged that she was a victim of sex trafficking and endorsed placing her on probation instead of sending her to prison.
Obligated under a 1997 state law, the judge ordered her as part of her sentence to pay $150,000 to Brooks' estate. A GoFundMe that Lewis' ninth-grade teacher set up for her raised far more in a matter of days.
The circumstances and reasons Lewis left Fresh Start have not been revealed publicly, nor has how she was arrested. They are likely to be central to what is expected to be the two-day hearing beginning March 23.
Des Moines Register Watchdog columnist Lee Rood contributed to this article.
Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Pieper Lewis pleads guilty to escape, faces possible prison sentence
