Accused rapist enters pleas

SANDPOINT — A Kootenai man accused of rape and drug trafficking entered pleas Monday to reduced charges.

Robert Pearson Moore is scheduled to be sentenced in 1st District Court on Aug. 13.

Moore, 36, was charged with forcibly raping a woman on April 24 and later charged with cultivating marijuana after a search of his home turned up several pot plants.

However, Moore entered into a plea agreement which reduced the rape charge to domestic battery with traumatic injury and the trafficking charge to misdemeanor possession, court records show.

“My actions have warranted this judgment against me. Furthermore, I do not wish (the alleged victim) or myself to have to go through the humiliation of a jury trial,” Moore said in a written plea agreement.

If convicted as originally charged, Moore faced up to life in prison on the rape charge and up to a five years on the trafficking charge. The lesser offenses to which Moore pleaded guilty carry up to 10 years and up to year, respectively.

The plea agreement recommends a four- to 10-year prison term on the domestic battery charge and a concurrent, yearlong sentence on the drug charge. The sentence recommendations are not binding upon the court, however.

More remains held at the Bonner County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bond.