Source: cowboystatedaily.com 12/27/22
A Riverton man sentenced to a decade in prison for sexually abusing a 5-year-old while he was in his late teens is not entitled to have his sentence reduced to probation after completing Wyoming’s Youthful Offender Transition Program, the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled.
Joshua ____, 22, was sentenced by Fremont County District Court in June 2021 to between eight and 12 years in prison for sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl when he was 17.
That sentence was reduced to between six and 10 years after ____ successfully completed Wyoming’s Youthful Offender program.
But, acknowledging what the case prosecutor called the “disturbing” nature of the crime, the Fremont County District court did not reduce ____’s sentence to probation as the Wyoming Department of Corrections had recommended.
When ____ appealed, the Wyoming Supreme Court upheld the District court’s decision to keep him in prison, according to a holding order filed Thursday.
so an angry victim gets to choose what punishment he gets! where are we North Korea. ok he deserves to be punished but i guess Judges are afraid of losing there popularity ! What an ego i guess.
I agree with the Prosecutors in this case, because of The disturbing nature of the crime and the age of the victim he doesn’t deserve probation. I also thought reducing his sentence by 2 years after completing a youth program was fair. Hopefully because this guy was so young when he committed his crimes, that after he’s let out of prison, he can petition to be removed from the registry after 10-20 years BUT It’s all most impossible to support someone with a victim that young
He should count himself lucky. If he had done that here in Michigan and it involved penetration, he could easily been charged as an adult and handed a life sentence.
Hopefully he’ll do well in group therapy and understand just how wrong his crime was and change his ways.
Not to sound dismissive, but what happens when his sentence is served and he moves back to that same small town and they “unavoidably see him” then?
What I find most unfortunate is that the victim is being taught that her status as a sex crime victim makes her exalted and entitles her to a stress-free life. She will eventually use her abuse as an excuse to dodge responsibility for every mistake or wrongdoing she ever commits and will grow up to think her thoughts and opinions have more weight than anyone else’s.
I’ve known many sex crime victims over the years. Contrary to popular opinion, most do get over it and go on to lead perfectly normal lives. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the victims with the hardest time moving on are the ones that are coddled by their purported advocates.
The courts are stacked against us. They’ll never give people like us a truly fair hearing. The game is rigged so the best option is to not play it.
I think the biggest unfairness is courts handing down the same sentence to defendants for merely viewing the actions of this man on film. If victims and prosecutors had a choice: Would they rather spend prison space and scarce resources on someone who’d never touched a child, or on someone like this man who committed a disturbing act? Some people will say both, and that’s their right to feel that way. But we know there’s never a ‘both’ in a society of scarce resources. Even in a rich society as ours, victim rights groups & local law enforcement always have their hand out for funding and donations. I remember SOT always saying we should empathize with the victim. But after serving 3 years in prison for never touching or communicating with a victim—sorry to say, I became more hardened and less empathetic toward victims. That’s what happens when you have politicians, prosecutors and victim rights groups gunning for sentences that don’t fit the crime. The only empathy I have is for people who suffer at the hands of these unjust laws
Why in the name of God are we making pronouncements and offering conclusive opinions as if we actually know anything about this case, or about this young man?
We know little about this young man’s history or the surrounding circumstances of the alleged crime. Were there any mitigating or aggravating factors of which are not aware that would be determinative or helpful when considering what is or is not ‘fair’ in his case? (i.e, was he using drugs, alcohol at the time of the molestation? Is there a history of psychopathy, or sociopathy, or anti-social behaviors such as thefts, fights, etc.? Did he have a mental illness, or psychiatric condition, or other health issues? Was he a young victim himself? Has he a history of sexually ‘acting out’? Was he an honor student in school and everyone was SHOCKED when he was accused? What was his home life like?)
Also, how has he responded to treatment? Did he admit to the acts, or did he deny guilt? Was he receptive to treatment, or not? Assuming there was ‘treatment’, what does the therapist say about him? What does his peers say about him? No one gives a crap about what the police, prosecutor or judge has to say as they are advocates or are subject to political pressures. Certainly their opinions are not objective.
Further, we know nothing about the crime itself other than the victim’s age. We can assume the worst (repeated and overt sexual acts), or we can assume that this was a one-time relatively innocuous occurence, such as an inadvertent or accidental ‘touching’ that was then blown up beyond reason?
There are a thousand other factors that I can point to that would be essential to know when offering an opinion as to what is or is not fair and appropriate in this case.
We demand and expect that we ourselves recieve individual assessments when determining what is fair and appropriate for ourselves (I know that I certainly do). Let’s not fall into the same knee-jerk reactions of which we accuse our tormentors. It would only be fair.
The guy got his sentence reduced. He should consider this a gift. Many here that comment on ACSOL think every sex crime should be probation. I am not in that camp. Since the details aren’t supplied to us, I will have to agree that he needs to complete the reduced sentence. This wasn’t a sexting crime with a girlfriend , or even a Romeo &Juliet scenario. This guy abused a 5 yr old child.