Sex offender receives two-year jail sentence

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Halston Wiley, a 50-year-old, convicted sex offender from Linneus wearing an orange jumpsuit and restraints in Aroostook County Superior Court last Wednesday, heard Justice E. Allen Hunter say during sentencing “it was not a simple lapse in judgment” but “among the most egregious crimes of unlawful sexual touching.” Adding that he would impose a harsher sentence if he could, Hunter handed Wiley a sentence of five years with three suspended and two years’ probation for the Class C felony of sexual contact with a child under 14.
   In a similar unrelated case back in August, Kirk Gould, a 42-year-old Sherman man, was sentenced on two counts of gross sexual assault, also in Superior Court in Houlton. Gould was found guilty of sexually abusing a child under 18 for more than five years.
      Hunter also presided over Gould’s sentencing and gave him 25 years in prison with all but 12 years suspended on a Class A felony charge. Gould will be on probation for four years. On a second charge — a Class B felony — Gould got 10 years to be served concurrently with the first sentence. The Class A felony charge of abuse took place when the victim was under 14 years old; the Class B felony charge covered a period of abuse when the child was over 14.
    Both men will undergo treatment as sexual offenders, monitoring during probation and be restricted from contact with anyone under 18. Wiley will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years; Gould for life. Both will pay fines and both are appealing the conviction. The children in those and other comparable cases have to pick up the pieces with their families and move on from the horrors of abuse.
Child sex abuse ‘a huge problem’
    At the time of Gould’s sentencing, Aroostook County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Gordon said the problem of child abuse “is off the charts. It’s a huge problem in Aroostook County.” Gordon added that people are afraid to come forward. In both of these cases, the victims spoke up.
    Rebecca Miller, a victim/witness advocate, who was involved in both cases agreed that testimony of the victim is very important and difficult for the child.
    In Gould’s case, the victim, said Gordon, bore the weight of the wellbeing of her family who moved in with Gould. She feared no one would believe her if she reported it and the family would end up with no place to live. Miller said police remove a perpetrator living in a home with the victim which is what happened with Gould.
    In Wiley’s case it was a one-time occurrence. The victim did not live with the perpetrator. “It may have happened again if she hadn’t told. He took advantage of a situation. She was there and he took advantage of that,” said Miller.
    Wiley was out on bail for about two years. “We got [the case] two years ago but it was not resolved until today. After the verdict came back ‘guilty,’ he went to jail, then — on December 4,” Miller said.
A victim’s warning
    “Susan,” a victim of child sexual abuse, said she hopes to go to nursing school, get married and have a family one day. She said sexual abuse by a trusted adult changed her life. “I just got to the point I couldn’t take it anymore and I told [my mother] because I wanted a normal life. I said ‘he touched me.’”
    Her cautionary message to parents is “look for the signs if the father is too touchy, feely and not acting like a father.” The young woman said in her home, the abuser was very controlling did not allow her to date, accused her of acting out and of taking drugs. He went so far as threatening her with confinement in a mental institution if she revealed the abuse.
    “I knew something was wrong. It wasn’t right. I’d look around see other little girls with their dads and it was totally different the way they acted. But, at the time I couldn’t say anything because I was little.”