(FORT BRAGG, N.C.) (AP) — Legal experts say Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s brutal captivity by Taliban allies carried significant weight in a judge’s decision to spare him prison time for leaving his post in Afghanistan.

Criticism by President Donald Trump also appeared to push the judge toward leniency.

Army Col. Jeffery Nance didn’t explain how he formulated his sentence that also included a dishonorable discharge. But the judge had to consider complex arguments for and against leniency.

Prosecutors unsuccessfully fought for a prison sentence. They cited soldiers who were injured when they searched for Bergdahl. But the defense argued that Bergdahl had suffered enough. He spent five years as a captive of the Taliban and also suffered from mental illnesses.

Former Army lawyer Eric Carpenter says an unusual amount of factors were in Bergdahl’s favor.

President Donald Trump called the sentence “a disgrace.”

(Gretna, Va.) – Charges have been filed in the death of a Gretna teen in Harrisonburg last year.

Hailey Ryan Moore was a student at James Madison University on November 9, 2016, when the 18-year-old died of a drug overdose.

20 year-old Joey Fondaco, Moore’s boyfriend at the time, is now charged with second-degree murder.

Moore was a freshman at JMU when she was found unresponsive at Fondaco’s off-campus apartment. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital a short time later.

The state medical determined her death was the result of a drug overdose.

Fondaco is scheduled for a bond hearing in Rockingham County Circuit Court on September 25.