Billionaire Gets 4 Months For Sexually Assaulting 12-Year-Old Because He’s ‘Productive

[struggle4progress]

32. The original charges were reduced because the prosecution had no chance of succeeding

without cooperation from the victim and her mother, which wasn't forthcoming:

... Fifty-nine-year-old Samuel "Curt" Johnson III of Racine was originally charged with a felony count of child sexual assault. But prosecutors sought to downgrade the charge after they say the victim and her mother refused to cooperate ...
Billionaire pleads guilty to sexual assault charge
Fri 3:02 PM, Jun 06, 2014

... "Any hope of successfully prosecuting the defendant on the felony charge is virtually nonexistent," assistant district attorney Robert Repischak wrote ... Johnson's attorneys initially sought access to the girl's medical records to determine whether she reported the alleged assaults during therapy. An appeals court ruled that she couldn't testify in the case until she released her records, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the decision. The girl and her mother refused to do so. That meant prosecutors were legally prohibited from calling the girl as a witness. The mother and girl have also fought subpoenas that would force them to return to Wisconsin from their current home in North Carolina to assist in the trial ...

The prosection therefore downgraded the charges with the permission of the judge; and defendant pleaded guilty to the downgraded charges. The maximum possible sentence, for the charges to which he pleaded guilty, would have been a year; the judge didn't go with that, despite the prosecutor's request to do so, because the defendant had no prior history

... Assistant District Attorney Robert Repischak asked for the maximum sentence — nine months in jail on the sexual assault, and 90 days for disorderly conduct, consecutive, to make a year in the county jail ... Circuit Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz said he was "troubled" by the state recommendation, since he's never seen prosecutors seek maximum sentences for a first-time offender before, and imposed the term the defense suggested ... Without the girl's testimony, prosecutors had little chance of winning conviction at trial of such serious charges ...
S.C. Johnson heir pleads guilty in sex assault case
By Bruce Vielmetti of the Journal Sentinel
June 6, 2014