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Court reverses rape sentence Defendant would serve more time, but he's been deported to Mexico The Associated Press SALEM -- The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling that gave an admitted Mexican rapist a sentencing break partly because of what the judge cited as cultural differences. The case from Jackson County involved Jesus Enrico Mercado-Vasquez, who was living in Medford when he pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl with whom he was acquainted in 1996. Any sexual intercourse with a girl under 14 is second-degree rape under state law. Circuit Judge Loren Sawyer sentenced Mercado-Vasquez to 16 months in prison instead of the 75-month term called for by the state minimum sentencing law. The appeals court's reversal directs the circuit court to resentence Mercado-Vasquez to the 75-month minimum. He has served the shorter sentence and been deported to Mexico but could be arrested and made to serve the minimum term if he returned to this country, said Peter Cogswell, a spokesman for Attorney General Hardy Myers. Sawyer, now retired, ruled that the minimum sentence would be unconstitutionally cruel and unusual on grounds that in Mexico such crimes are not as often prosecuted because that nation's culture views the offenses differently. Sawyer also concluded the victim was a willing participant in the acts and had been "sexually active" with other men. The appeals court said views about the crime in Mexican culture were irrelevant because it was committed in the United States. "Whether or not the defendant might have gone unpunished for his crimes had they been committed in the country of his birth has nothing to do with the propriety of sentencing him under the laws of this country," the appeals court said in an opinion by Chief Judge Mary Deits. She noted Mercado-Vasquez, who was 22 at the time of the crime, had lived in the United States since early adolescence. The appeals court also said the girl's supposed willingness had no bearing on sentencing because juveniles aren't legally capable of consenting to sexual acts under Oregon law. If a child has been a victim of sex crimes on several occasions, the court said, that's not grounds "for concluding that her later abusers constitutionally must be given lighter sentences ... because the child has become sexually `sophisticated' as a result of the victimization." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA