The potential sentence for gross sexual imposition is nine months to five years. The rape charge carried a possible sentence of three to 11 years. He asked that people give him a second chance, and said he wanted to someday have a proper relationship with the victims. He said he would use his time in prison to become a better person. "All these years I've been pretending to be somebody I wasn't." "Looking back, I can’t believe I did something like that, to hurt a person," he said. Speaking on his own behalf, David Yoder apologized to his victims, his family, his church and the community. He said the defendant had repented and had done everything the church asked him to do after his crimes were disclosed. Relative and fellow Amish church member Leroy Miller told Ernest that David Yoder was an obedient child who had never been in trouble before. The defense attorney asked the judge to sentence the defendant to five years for rape and five years for gross sexual imposition, which would have allowed for judicial release after seven and a half years. He said members of the defendant's Amish church forgave him because that's what Jesus Christ taught them. He they felt they had been tricked by the criminal justice system. Reid Yoder of Akron said the victims want the defendant to get counseling and treatment rather than go to prison. The prosecutor said Yoder went to the sheriff's office on Mato confess his crimes after a counselor told him she would report the incidents to law enforcement if he did not.ĭefense attorney J. He said the victims expressed feeling that they had been robbed, were worthless, alone, afraid and guilty. This is the cycle that we deal with."ĭeedrick said the criminal case developed after one victim had suicidal thoughts, then told a counselor about the abuse. "This is an example of the fruit of that evil tree, which is that the defendant who was sexually abused became desensitized to this type of thing, and then perpetrated this same offense. "This is the problem with these offenses, that I've seen, is that people that have been victimized sexually, especially by a family member or a trusted person, are more likely to offend themselves," he said.
It will color every interaction that they have with people, and it will affect them adversely."ĭeedrick said Yoder was himself the victim of unreported sexual abuse as a child. "They will live with this for the rest of their lives. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online."These two now late-teen, early adults, victims have a life sentence," he said. Use family filters of your operating systems and/or browsers Other steps you can take to protect your children are:
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