8-year home detention sentence displeases rape victim

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis woman said she doesn’t believe she received justice from a judge who sentenced her ex-husband to no more time behind bars for raping her while she was asleep and possibly drugged.

Mandy Boardman told reporters Monday she felt “sucker punched in the gut” by a Marion County judge’s decision on Friday to sentence 52-year-old David Wise to eight years of home detention. A jury convicted Wise last month of one count of rape and five counts of criminal deviate conduct — all felonies punishable by six to 20 years in prison.

Boardman testified that in 2008 she found three sex videos of her on Wise’s cellphone but didn’t remember the sex or consenting to the videos. She said she once woke up with a pill dissolving in her mouth.

Boardman, who was married to Wise for 12 years until their 2009 divorce, said she made a DVD copy of the videos and went to police with them in 2011.

“During the reading of the sentence, the judge looked at me before he gave the final decision,” Boardman said. “I was told that I needed to forgive my attacker and move on. I received zero justice on Friday.”

The Associated Press generally does not identify sexual assault victims, but Boardman decided to speak out publicly about the case.

Wise’s defense attorney, Elizabeth Milliken, told The Indianapolis Star that Wise intends to appeal his conviction but declined additional comment.

Judge Kurt Eisgruber declined to comment on the sentencing decision because of the planned appeal.

Wise has no previous felony convictions, according to the Marion County prosecutor’s office. He has been convicted of battery, public indecency and driving while intoxicated, all of which are misdemeanors.

Wise no longer has visitation rights for the couple’s son and daughter and spent 24 days in jail following his arrest.

Marion County Deputy Prosecutor Courtney Curtis said prosecutors sought a sentence against Wise that included prison time.

“There is no difference when a woman knows her attacker and when she doesn’t,” Curtis said. “I think it is important to remember that this crime is one that was committed in the home and so serving a home sentence in the home is not something this office would ever ask for.”

Boardman said she plans to work with organizations and advocates to help other rape victims.

“I want to be that person who’ll be strong for other women,” she said. “They cannot be scared that because of the extremely light sentence that was handed down in this case, that it would happen to them as well.”