By Carl Hamilton
Newark Post
June 29, 2011
http://www.newarkpostonline.com/articles/2011/06/29/news/doc4e0b793cab66a647746813.txt
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| Donald Wells Belcher |
An 82-year-old retired priest who molested two girls while living in North East received a suspended 10-year sentence on Tuesday.
Donald Wells Belcher will serve no jail time beyond the 75 days that he was incarcerated after his arrest in December, unless he violates his probation.
After imposing the suspended sentence, Retired Judge Christian M. Kahl ordered Belcher to serve five years of supervised probation.
Belcher must register as a convicted sex offender, must undergo sex offender counseling and must have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 years old.
In addition, not only is Belcher barred from having contact with the victims, he is barred from their neighborhood.
The judge said he would allow Belcher to serve his probation in Montana, where he has a home and a business, if probation agents give him clearance to do so.
Kahl's sentence fell short of a recommendation made by Assistant State's Attorney Kevin B. Urick, who asked that Belcher receive nine to 19 years of active incarceration.
State sentencing guidelines, which are based on a defendant's criminal record and other factors, set that penalty range.
Urick specifically requested a 20-year sentence with one to 11 years suspended.
Belcher sexually abused a 15-year-old girl in June 2006, taking advantage of her disabilities, Urick said. Then in September, some four years later, Belcher molested the first victim's 8-year-old sister, he added.
"This is one of the most disconcerting cases. These children did nothing but be innocent victims. The state sees no redeeming factors in this defendant," Urick said.
Urick urged the judge not to consider Belcher's advanced age as a mitigating factor.
"If he is capable of molesting a child nine months ago, he is capable of serving time in prison," Urick maintained.
In April, as part of plea agreement, Belcher entered an Alford plea to two counts of sexual child abuse. A defendant maintains his innocence in an Alford plea while acknowledging prosecutors possess enough evidence to convict him at trial.
Prosecutors, in exchange, dropped related charges of third-degree sex offense and fourth-degree sex offense.
In that April hearing, Kahl indicated that he would impose a suspended sentence if a pre-sentencing investigation revealed Belcher had an otherwise clean criminal, which he does.
On Tuesday, the judge said he wouldn't deviate from his condition-based intention.
Kahl's sentence met a recommendation made by Belcher's lawyer, C. Thomas Brown, who noted that his client did not commit the offenses while performing his duties as an Episcopal priest.
Clad in a dark suit, Belcher sat at the defense table with his head lowered as the victims' friends and relatives, including their parents, addressed the judge and asked for maximum incarceration.
The mother told Kahl that Belcher "stalked" her daughters, taking advantage of one girl's love of animals and the other's medical condition.
"He took advantage of her syndrome to please his sexual perversion," the woman stressed.
Because of the sensitive nature of this case, the Cecil Whig is withholding victim-impact witness names to protect the victims.
Belcher declined to address the judge before sentencing, answering "correct" in a strong, deep voice when Kahl confirmed his wish to remain silent.
At sentencing, Urick played a portion of secretly taped phone conversation in which Belcher admits to inappropriately touching the girls.
"You know I'm not a predator that stands outside of schoolyards trying to find little girls or something. I don't know why I did it . . . It wasn't like I was slobbering at the mouth and wanted to do something to her to hurt her or have, quote, real sex with her," Belcher explains on the audiotape rendered Maryland State Police investigators.
At that time, Belcher told the person on the line that he would seek help.
"I'm going to go to confession and I'm also going to consider some, uh, you know, psychiatric thing," Belcher says on tape.
A Cecil County grand jury handed up a four-count indictment against Belcher in November, after police had learned of the incidents and conducted an investigation.
In December, authorities in Montana arrested Belcher after Sgt. Jody Ressin of the Maryland State Police notified them of his indictment and asked officers to take him into custody. He was extradited back to Cecil County in January.
Investigators said Belcher has ties in that state and, at the time of his arrest, he had owned a bar, the Dirty Shame, in Yaak, Mont., since 2006.
Detectives also confirmed that Belcher was a minister at Holy Trinity Church in Troy, Mont., and St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Libby, Mont., from 1996 to 2001. He retired several years ago.
Contact: cahamilton@cecilwhig.com
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