Convicted Mansfield Rapist Scott Butner up for Parole
By Mark Caudill
MANSFIELD — Scott Butner is a notorious name in the history of First Presbyterian Church.
Butner, then 17, pleaded guilty to five counts of rape and five counts of gross sexual imposition in a child molestation case in 1992. He received a concurrent sentence of eight to 25 years in prison for the rape counts and a suspended 10-year sentence for the gross sexual imposition convictions.
Butner was a volunteer baby sitter at First Presbyerian Church, 399 S. Trimble Road, in 1990 and 1991 when the abuse happened. Richland County Prosecutor James Mayer Jr. said there were 18 victims between the ages of 4 and 10.
“I feel he presents a substantial risk to reoffend,” the prosecutor said. “He still continues to blame other people for the outcome of the case.
“He has never shown any genuine remorse. He’s never apologized to any of the victims or the families.”
The abuse occurred from the summer of 1990 to February 1991. Butner and co-defendant Lawrence Rohde were convicted of sexually abusing the children in church bathrooms, classrooms and in nearby woods while the children’s parents attended church services and other church activities.
Rohde, then 19, took his case to trial and was convicted of seven counts of gross sexual imposition. He was released from prison in November 2000 after serving about nine years.
Butner was considered the more culpable of the two. He originally faced 37 counts.
“He continually denies threatening any of these children,” Mayer said.
The prosecutor said Butner pointed a gun at one of the children, threatened to flush one down the toilet and said he would shoot another with a crossbow.
Mayer said Butner also physically harmed some of the children, hitting a girl with a stick and putting tape over a boy’s rectum.
The case took a bizarre turn when some children described satanic rituals, including the sacrifice of animals and babies, trips to a private home where they saw dead bodies stacked in a basement and other cases of molestation and abuse in which they were threatened to keep quiet.
After a probe lasting a year and a half, authorities found no evidence to support those claims.
“We never believed any of the stuff about the cult,” defense attorney David Homer previously told the News Journal. “Butner had a situation where he admitted to an offense with one person, one time. All of our sympathy went out to the girl who suffered the abuse.
“He acknowledged the guilt and then this whole hysteria ... it was ripping the community apart. It affected a lot of people.”
Mayer said seven of the children contracted a venereal disease.
“That was one fact that got my attention,” he said.
The prosecutor said Butner and Rohde initially were charged as juveniles but had their cases bound over to adult court, a first in county history.
For the only time in his career, Mayer said he used a psychologist to help pick a jury.
“It was a horrific case, one I’ll never forget,” he said. “So many children were involved. They were so young.”
If Butner is not paroled, his sentence will end June 1, 2016.
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