Dozens of people in Webster County have taken to social media to share rage over the sentencing of Aaron and Petie Schwartz after the two were convicted of child molestation – the brothers received five years probation.
The brothers, who confessed to raping their 12-year-old relative, could still end up behind bars.
Last week, Webster County Prosecutor Ben Berkstresser filed a motion to have Aaron and Petie Schwartz’s probations revoked, arguing the brothers had contact with the victim after they were convicted, which is forbidden under their sex offender supervision agreement.
Court records reveal Petie Schwartz, 18, and Aaron Schwartz, 22, could serve up to 15 years in jail if their probation is withdrawn – a hearing on the matter is scheduled for October 6.
Webster County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Berkstresser asked a judge on Thursday to revoke probation in the cases of two Seymour area Amish men who pleaded guilty to child molestation earlier this month, online court documents reveal.
The Springfield News-Leader reported the two men took a plea agreement to evade jail time.
Under the agreement, their 15-year jail sentences were suspended, provided they obey all probation conditions set by a judge.
Initial charges filed in June accused each man of six counts of statutory rape and one count of incest.
According to investigative reports from the Webster County Sherriff’s Office obtained by the News-Leader under the Missouri Sunshine Law, a doctor’s state hotline call reported on June 6 initiated the investigation – the victim has had a baby in recent weeks.
Probable cause statements from each case reveal that the girl was found to be pregnant and admitted to a doctor that she had been having sex with the two men.
Investigators said the pair each confessed to having relations with the child about six times over the previous year and both admitted to investigators that they were conscious of her age.
One of the brothers is the father of the child, Berkstresser said, according to the Webster County Citizen and he said it needed to be noted that in this case, there were four brothers, two of them juveniles, while the other two legally are adults, but all of them had sexual relations with their sister and there was no question that this happened.
He said, in the end, this wasn’t a case of a parent and child, where a parent in a position of authority sexually abused or exploited their child. This was a case where four siblings engaged in acts with their sister and he said that he offered a 15-year prison sentence founded on that.
This is extremely sad indeed and these boys need punishment or they will replicate the behaviour again.
The poor young girl has lost her innocence and become a mother and she will need love, counselling and protection and these brothers need to be in prison for an extremely long time.
This poor girl will probably be shunned for the rest of her life and her child too – the community she lives in will condemn her and she will have to leave.
And this judge needs to be removed from the bench, his verdict overturned and these men sent to jail and we should be extremely furious with the prosecutor who allowed this to happen.
And what sort of message is this sending other children their age? That nothing bad will happen to them if they get caught doing such a heinous crime like that and that some judge will feel sorry for them and basically slap them on the wrists and send them home so that they can do it again.
