Associated Press
November 17, 2004
By MANUEL ERNESTO RIVERA
Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - A former speaker of Puerto Rico's house of representatives had been sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape and two counts of giving alcohol to minors.
Edison Misla Aldarondo was convicted Tuesday of intoxicating his stepdaughter and her 17-year-old friend and attempting to rape the friend. He was sentenced to 10 years for attempted rape and received a pair of three-year sentences for the lesser charges, to be served simultaneously.
Misla Aldarondo pleaded guilty after reaching a deal with prosecutors to reduce a rape charge to attempted rape. But he resisted saying the word ``guilty'' at the sentencing hearing Tuesday.
``We are accepting an agreement reached by my lawyer and the prosecutor in this case,'' he told Judge Carmen Vargas Medina.
The judge then read each of the counts and said, ``I want to hear you say you are guilty.''
Misla Aldarondo swallowed hard and said, ``In that case, we're guilty.''
Misla Aldarondo, who served as the U.S. territory's House speaker from 1996-2000, is already serving a six-year sentence in federal prison for corruption.
After completing that sentence, he faces 10 years in a Puerto Rican prison for sexually abusing his stepdaughter since she was nine-years-old and another nine years for other corruption charges.
Prosecutor Carmen Iris Ortiz said the former member of the pro-statehood New Progressive party faces 22 years in Puerto Rican prisons, but could be freed in half that time on good behavior. Misla Aldarondo will simultaneously serve the 10-year sentences for attempted rape and abusing his stepdaughter, Ortiz said.
Misla Aldarondo's son, Yamil Misla, said his father pleaded guilty because he asked him to. The younger Misla said he hoped the guilty plead would allow his father to be reunited with his family sooner.
``You saw that he didn't want to declare himself guilty of actions he did not commit,'' Yamil Misla said.
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