Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Kentucky man sentenced to 10 years for molesting Newton County child


(From the Newton County Prosecuting Attorney's Office)

A Kentucky man entered a plea of guilty in Newton County Circuit Court to a count of child molestation and was sentenced to 10 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

John E. Hartle, 71, Williamstown, Kentucky, was sentenced by Judge Kevin Selby of the 40th Judicial Circuit on Tuesday, May 25, on one count of child molestation in the first degree.

In the summer of 2020, the juvenile victim gave a disclosure to a forensic interviewer at the Children's Center in Joplin, Missouri that the defendant rubbed the victim's genitals through the victim's pants pocket.







Family members confronted the defendant about the disclosure, at which time he fled the state to attend a sexual addiction treatment center in Kentucky.

"Finding justice for juvenile sexual assault survivors in a way that doesn't further their trauma is difficult to balance," said Newton County Prosecuting Attorney William Lynch.

"This plea allows justice to be served without requiring this child to testify repeatedly throughout the process. Given the age of the defendant, he may well spend the rest of his life in prison.'

The case was investigated by Detective Brad Black of the Newton County Sheriff's Office and prosecuted by William Lynch and Mitchell Cross of the Newton County Prosecutor's Office.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me like some 71 year old agreed to admit to touching some young gaywad through clothing in order to get his free room and board and medical care paid for by Missouri taxpayers until he is 81 years old and can be put into a nursing home.

After all, if he denied touching someone's genitals through clothing and thus there was no forensic evidence then there wouldn't be much of a case now would there be? Thank the baby-stealers and judges for taking this hardened old criminal from Kentucky who admitted doing this to being fed and housed and clothed and taken care of for the next decade at Missouri expense. Maybe at the end of the decade he can be civilly committed at a price of $200,000 in a nursing home facility.