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Convicted rapist’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court denied

Posted at 4:01 PM, Nov 20, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-20 18:01:07-05
John Lieba, the Fort Peck man who was convicted for kidnapping and raping a Poplar girl.

GREAT FALLS-The U.S. Supreme court has denied an appeal for John Lieba, the Fort Peck man who was convicted for kidnapping and raping a Poplar girl.

The court denied the petition to review the conviction of Lieba, who was sentenced to 42 years last year in prison for kidnapping, rape, and assault.

An Amber Alert was issued in February of 2016 after the girl was reported missing from a park in Wolf Point. According to court documents, Lieba had been stalking a pair of young girls at the park before he kidnapped the victim.

“Lieba was dedicated to kidnapping and raping a girl on February 26, 2017,” said prosecutors in their sentencing memorandum. “He first tried for an eleven-year-old girl, but she was too fast.”

Lieba managed to kidnap the victim and took her to a remote location where he raped and assaulted her, according to court documents.

In his appeal, Lieba challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his convictions.

The court made its ruling on Monday with no explanation about why they decided to decline the appeal.

-Margaret DeMarco reporting for MTN News