Admitted molester harshly sentenced for separate crimes

By Jon Mills
WZZM
April 17, 2015

http://www.wzzm13.com/story/news/local/muskegon/2015/04/17/man-accused-of-molestation-decades-ago-sentenced-on-separate-crime/25959335/

Randall Doctor.

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WZZM) -- Grown men who say they were abused by a former church volunteer decades ago hoped to publicly confront the man during his sentencing Friday.

Randall Doctor was convicted on drug and gun charges and while the men were not allowed to speak, the abuse he has admitted to was taken into consideration.

"I think we are all just feeling relief," said Brad White of North Muskegon. Last year, he and seven other men told police Doctor sexually abused them when they were teenagers. "I do not ever want anybody to live what we went through," he said.

The sex crimes could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired, but the investigation into the abuse turned up drugs and guns at Doctor's home.

"For all of those years we lived with thinking we were bad people, that there was something wrong with us," White explained. "Guys do not talk about this."

He says Doctor's abuse was always a heavy burden he carried-- one that altered his life and others for so may years.

"Mr. Doctor, you are a pedophile. You have ruined the lives of a lot of these people," Muskegon County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Hicks said. "I hope they are moving on, but there is a mark there that can not be washed away."

Prosecutors asked Hicks to consider the crimes that couldn't be charged, in sentencing the drug and gun convictions. Doctor will spend a mandatory two years in prison on the gun charge and at least 30 months on the drug case.

"This sentence is 10 time what the guidelines would allow, 10 times," Judge Hicks said, citing he uncharged abuse in going above state guidelines.

Rachael McEnhill, the Muskegon County senior assistant prosecutor said the sentence was just shy of the maximum allowed under state law. "We asked for the most we could get." Prosecutors and detectives are still working to see if there are more recent abuse victims whose cases could be charged. "Our office is willing to speak with anyone," McEnhill said.

"I would stake my reputation that there are many, many more people out there that do not want to come forward just because of the embarrassment and they just do not want to have to deal with it anymore," said Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Gregory Poulson.

Doctor admitted to molesting boys in 1970s and 80s; "I apologize to all the victims from all the years back. I am very sorry for what I have done," he said. But the apology did little to heal the wounds of the men in court.

"He stole my life, he did, but today I got it back."

However, knowing he'll spend the next few years in prison is bringing some comfort.