A former Denver police officer was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman he had arrested. But in a surprising move made over the objections of prosecutors, Denver District Judge John Madden allowed Hector Paez to remain free on $100,000 bond while he appeals his conviction.

Paez, 33, was convicted in December of second-degree kidnapping, sexual assault and false reporting after a two-week trial. He could have faced up to 24 years on the kidnapping charge.

The case began in May 2010, when Paez, then a patrol officer, arrested a 36-year-old woman on an outstanding warrant. He then took the woman to a remote location, and told her if she didn't perform a sex act, he would take her to jail.

Paez, a married father of four, has maintained his innocence. At his trial, his attorneys argued that he kept the woman in his patrol car while he gathered information on her heroin dealer, and that he took her to a secluded spot so her pimp wouldn't spot her.

The woman asserted that the man Paez' attorneys called her pimp was actually her fiance.

In addition to eight years in prison, Madden sentenced Paez to 10 years to life on probation.
