TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court on Tuesday is scheduled to review a petition from a former Smoky Valley Middle School counselor who was convicted of two counts of rape of a child under the age of 14.
Brooke Dinkel, now 40, who formerly taught in Hays, was convicted in Saline County District Court in 2014. According to court records, the victim was a student at the middle school.
The Supreme Court case summary included that Dinkel's primary defense at trial was that the student raped her. She argued she could not be guilty of rape of a child under age 14 based on the pair's first sexual encounter because the student raped her. She also argued she could not be guilty of rape of a child under age 14 for subsequent encounters because she was suffering from trauma from the first sexual encounter (mental disease or defect) and therefore could not form the requisite intent to commit the crime, according to the summary.
"Dinkel was granted a significant durational departure from a Jessica's law sentence. Instead of a hard-25 life sentence, she was sentenced to 165 months — just under 14 years — on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently," the Kansas Supreme Court summary noted.
Dinkel appealed and the Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed her conviction on the two counts. Dinkel's current petition before the Kansas Supreme Court includes the following issues.
●That the Court of Appeals erred in holding K.S.A. 21-5503(a)(3) imposes absolute criminal liability on an adult victim who is raped by a child.
●That Dinkel was denied her constitutional right to present a defense by the exclusion of mental disease or defect testimony.
●That the Court of Appeals erred in holding the rebuttal testimony of the police officer was neither false nor improper.
●That Dinkel was denied the right to effective assistance of counsel.
All Kansas Supreme Court cases will be heard by videoconference and livestreamed on the court's YouTube channel. Dinkel's case is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday.