The Enquirer
June 3, 2008
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080603/NEWS01/806030315/1002/NEWS01
His lower lip began to quiver and Troy Deal wiped away tears as a judge told him what his prison sentence meant.
"If you commit a crime and get convicted of it, you have to pay the price," Calhoun County Circuit Judge Stephen Miller said Monday. "And it's sad for you and your wife and your children."
Not only will the sentence mean Deal is imprisoned, the judge said, but it will deprive him of seeing his children grow and it will place a hardship on his wife, trying to keep the family together.
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| Troy Deal with his attorney, Susan Mladenoff. Photo by Trace Christenson |
But, Miller said, because Deal was convicted he must spend between four and 20 years in prison.
Deal, 35, was sentenced Monday on 11 counts of using a computer to solicit a child for sexually abusive material, distributing sexually abusive material and communicating with a child for immoral purposes.
He was convicted in April by a jury after he was arrested by the Michigan Attorney General's office, which alleged he engaged in explicit chats over the Internet with agents of the AG's office posing as 13 and 14-year-old girls.
The agents testified they conducted Internet chats with Deal for more than 20 months before he was arrested in 2007.
Miller acknowledged a range of thought about adults posing as children and then arresting suspects who propose having sex with them.
"You can see the laws are harsh," he said. "But there is a legitimate concern that people use the Internet to entice children to do strange things."
He said the law and the sentencing guidelines, which are binding for judges, are passed by the Legislature, but no matter what people think about them, they are the law in Michigan.
Assistant Attorney General Kelly Carter called for a long sentence and noted at the time of his arrest Deal was director of youth ministries at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church. He was fired after his arrest.
"He was a youth pastor and was guiding the development of young people. It is disturbing that it was the same class he was chosen to mentor and guide," Carter said, noting Deal suggested group sex and acts of sexual submission by children in his chats.
And Carter said while Deal was corresponding with adult agents, "his luck couldn't be so bad that the only ones he was talking to were undercover agents."
Defense Attorney Susan Mladenoff urged the judge to remember that Deal had support from his family and many friends and had no prior criminal history.
He has been undergoing counseling and working since his arrest.
"The chats were vulgar," Mladenoff said, "but there was never an attempt to meet anyone or arrange a meeting. He didn't use his position to exploit and, despite publicity locally and across the state, no one has ever come forward to complain about improper conduct with minors."
Trace Christenson can be reached at 966-0685 or tchrist@battlecr.gannett.com
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