Not as much publicity as Michael Jackson

With the undue attention that was paid to the recently-concluded Michael Jackson trial, it is easy to forget that thousands of child molestation cases are filed across the United States each day.
Because of the nature of these cases and the necessity of having children testify against adults with no other witnesses to the crime, many child molesters are never brought to justice.
One who was was William E. Ernst, Branson, who will continue serving his seven-year prison sentence after the Missouri Supreme Court Tuesday decided not to hear his appeal.
Ernst had already been rejected by the Southern District Court of Appeals.
On the face of it, there are some similarities between the case brought by Taney County authorities against Ernst and the one brought in California against Jackson. In both cases, prosecutors were allowed to call witnesses who talked about an older man inviting children to share his bed. Both cases also had the accused plying the children with alcohol.
The judge's decision to allow the testimony of the other children was cited by Ernst, 69, in his original appeal. Ernst's case was a bench trial, meaning that the judge made the final decision on Ernst's fate.
According to the appeal file, Ernst was 66 when he became friends with an 11-year-old girl referred to as L. F. Her mother was struggling to raise four kids on her own and owned a restaurant near where Ernst lived, according to the court file.
L. F. worked for her mother as a waitress and talked with Ernst from time to time. Ernst bought clothes and toys for the family and often had L. F. and her siblings stay with him overnight, the court file said.
At some point in 2001, when L. F. was 14, Ernst started telling her that "she needed to sleep with him because God wanted her to do so that she could be an angel in heaven and wouldn't make God mad." He also began giving her alcohol during that period.
"On Jan. 31, 2002, when L. F. was 15 years old, Ernst took her to the mall buy a dress for an upcoming school dance. In (his) truck on the way home from the mall, (he) told her that she needed to have sexual intercourse with him 'to get it done and over with, that this was a good time and and just stop waiting around to do it.
When they returned to Ernst's place, he had sex with her and afterward, the girl said, she felt "numb" and "disgusted. As they were lying in the bed, Ernst said, "God's proud of you."
After that, each time L. F. saw Ernst at the restaurant, he told her not to tell anyone about what had happened. Later, he asked her if she would have sex with him, "but not for God.' She refused, according to the court file.
On April 16, 2002, L. F. told her mother what had happened. After that, Ernst was arrested and, charged with statutory rape in the second degree, and after the bench trial two years later, Ernst was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison.
During the trial, one of L. F.'s young cousins was called as a witness. She told of an incident in which Ernst asked her to come to bed with him. He didn't try anything, the cousin said, but he made her feel extremely uncomfortable and eventually, she left his bed and returned to the couch where she had been sleeping. The judge allowed the testimony to show that Ernst had made a habit of inviting children into his bed.