Freeland Found Guilty of Sexual Abuse, Likely to Appeal

Chillicothe Gazette
September 22, 2012

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20120922/NEWS01/209220301

Ross County Sheriff's Deputy Danny Cook handcuffs Gary W. Freeland on Friday after the jury returned guilty verdicts at the Ross County Courthouse

CHILLICOTHE --A Washington Court House man who was found guilty of nine sex abuse charges from the 1990s involving children likely will appeal his conviction.

Just after noon Friday, the jury in the trial of Gary W. Freeland, 61, returned guilty verdicts on four counts of rape, two counts of felonious sexual penetration, and three counts of gross sexual imposition.

Judge Wm. Jhan Corzine ordered a victim-impact statement, but not a presentencing investigation.

"I don't really see the point in a PSI when life in prison is a sentence for a number of these offenses," Corzine said in court, adding he doesn't want to waste resources.

Sentencing has been tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m. Oct. 5 in Ross County Common Pleas Court. Corzine noted sentencing will be complicated since the laws have changed and some of the charges no longer exist in the form they did when the crimes took place in 1994 and 1995.

Jeremy Freeland, 38, one of Gary Freeland's biological sons, said he and his brother and sister plan to look into appeal options for their father.

"I don't believe my dad did this. I love my dad," he said.

He described his father very differently from what was presented during testimony this week. Jeremy said he lived with Gary for 19 years and said he was a loving father who provided for his family.

"He taught us faith and lived it out in front of us. He wasn't perfect, but who is?" Jeremy Freeland said.

Although a jury of 12 found the prosecution --Associate Assistant Attorneys General Marianne Hemmeter and Jennifer Brumby --proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, Jeremy Freeland has doubts, because there was no physical evidence. Another of his concerns was that Corzine had dismissed five charges, including an alleged rape in Tabernacle Baptist Church, before the jury deliberating.

"If he's this monster, then where are the other victims?" Jeremy asked.

He declined to speculate on why the three victims, all adults now, would have come forward with allegations more than a decade later if they weren't true. He said it isn't fair to the victims or his father to speculate.

Freeland's attorney, Jim Boulger, had contended that there was some kind of collusion that stemmed from a dislike of Freeland. Only one of the three was present for Friday's verdicts -- Freeland's former stepdaughter --who cried in apparent relief. According to testimony, her brother had given only one statement to law enforcement and would not have testified this week without a subpoena from prosecutors.

Hemmeter and Brumby said they are pleased with the outcome and got "justice for the family who have been waiting a long time."

The jury began deliberating on Thursday after hearing testimony over three days in the Ross County Courthouse. Freeland's former stepchildren and a boy he had tutored testified Freeland had touched them and raped two of them.

Between Thursday and Friday, the jury deliberated more than five hours before arriving at a verdict late Friday morning.

The case was tried by the Attorney General's Office because of a potential conflict of interest, because Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt's father served as pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church.