By Vicky Wedig
Staff Writer
A man with a low IQ was sentenced Nov. 29 to 20 years in prison and 10 years extended supervision for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl with autism.
A jury convicted John S. Finley, 38, of Whitewater, of repeated sexual assault of a child, and he faced up to 60 years in prison.
Prosecution for the case requested a 25-year sentence for Finley while the defense asked for probation with a year in county jail, citing Finley’s low intelligence and need for cognitive therapy.
Judge Kristine Drettwan acknowledged that Finley’s intelligence was a slight mitigating factor in his sentencing, but said, despite his low intelligence, he knew what he did was wrong and he’d done it to other victims before.
The conviction stems from sexually touching a girl with whom he babysat over a period of years with the most recent incidents when the girl was 9 years old.
Drettwan, who also presided over Finley’s trial, said Finley took advantage of a vulnerable victim – a girl with autism who didn’t know what Finley was doing was wrong – and only did it when he was alone with her or in the presence of the girl’s younger sister, who is more severely autistic.
“I find that the protection of the public is paramount here,” she said, “I think he is a risk to young girls that are in his presence when others are not around.”
Deputy District Attorney Haley Johnson pointed out Finley’s prior offenses – having sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old girl in 1999 when he was 21 years old and having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 2001 that resulted in her pregnancy.
Johnson said the fact that Finley told the victims not to tell and took advantage of them in private indicates he knew what he did what wrong.
Defense attorney Melissa Frost argued about the relevance and severity of those cases.
“We’re not here to sentence John on a 1999 case or a 2000 case,” she said.
In the 1999 case, she said, Finley and the victim were close in age, and the court felt seven months in jail was an adequate sentence. In the second matter in Jefferson County, Finley was sentenced to six month in county jail and was not required to register as a sex offender, she said.
“They could not have been as bad as the police reports made them sound,” Frost said.
Further, she said, the 9-year-old girl’s family was aware of his prior offenses but still trusted him to babysit.
“There’s no doubt the family knew these things happened,” Frost said, “They were discarded as not being a red flag to the family.”
“I don’t know why that happened,” Drettwan said.
She acknowledged that while she was not sentencing Finley on those prior conviction, she could consider them in sentencing him on the latest conviction. She said despite two alerts from the criminal justice system, Finley assaulted another young girl.
“He has not learned from his prior convictions,” she said.
Drettwan said sentencing Finley to probation without prison time would unduly depreciate the gravity of the offense.
“I consider this offense to be very grave,” she said. “I think confinement is necessary.”
The girl’s father spoke at Finley’s sentencing hearing and said whether Finley was sentenced to one day or 60 years, it would not be worth the lives he destroyed.
“The last couple years have caused irreparable damage to my family,” he said.
Finley’s mother, with whom he has lived most of his life, and his aunt attended the sentencing to support him.
“John is innocent, and an appeal will prove that,” said his aunt, Linda Reed.
Drettwan said the evidence in the case supports the jury’s conviction
“The degree of Mr. Finley’s culpability, I believe, is 100 percent,” she said.
Drettwan agreed with Frost that Finley has rehabilitative needs but said, despite his low intelligence, he has been employed and is capable of functioning in society.
Frost said Finley has an IQ of 72, attended Lakeland School and lived with his mother his whole life except for a period of time he lived with a girlfriend whom he dated for nine years. In arguing for leniency, she said he doesn’t have a criminal past, has no drug or alcohol problems and, up until his trial, was working third shift though the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation putting boxes of cat food on pallets.
Johnson, in arguing for a harsher sentence, highlighted the video statement from the victim who talked about Finley touching her privates. She said the victim is a naïve young girl who didn’t know the touching was wrong or that she should tell, but she knew it made her angry.
“Her exclamation was, ‘I just didn’t know!’” Johnson said.
The abuse was discovered in a therapy session when the girl’s mother casually mentioned to the therapist that the girl had become angry with Finley, whom she’d once enjoyed spending time with, and no longer wanted to be around him, Johnson said.
“The effects of this type of assault don’t go away,” she said.
