By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A Nephi man was sentenced Friday, in Fourth District
Court held in Nephi, to spend six years in Utah State Prison
for sexually abusing a teen aged relative.
James W. Penrod, 22, Nephi, requested that Judge Lynn
W. Davis allow him to serve his sentence in a residential
therapy clinic rather than in the state penitentiary but his
request was denied.
Judge Davis said Penrod would be given credit for the
866 days he has spent incarcerated and would undergo sexual
therapy and treatment for depression while in prison.
Davis sentenced Penrod to serve six years to life on
the one count of sodomy of a child.
"My client suffers from severe depression, anxiety
disorders and post traumatic disorder syndrome because he
was a victim of sexual abuse, himself, as a child," said
Bill Hansen, Penrod's defense attorney.
Hansen said, in Penrod's case, prison incarceration
might drive him to suicide. Several experts who had
evaluated Penrod, concluded that sending Penrod to prison
might pose a threat on his life.
"He did not use a weapon or physical force and,
therefore, does not represent a threat if placed on
probation and housed in a rehabilitation facility for
several years," said Hansen.
1998, Penrod entered a plea of guilty and mentally ill
to one count of sodomy of a child, a first degree felony. He
also entered the same plea to two other
charges&emdash;sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree
felony, and providing harmful material to a minor, a
third-degree felony.
A judge, in 1999, determined that Penrod was not
mentally ill.
Davis agreed to allow the sentences for the two lesser
counts to run concurrent with the sodomy charge. Thus,
Penrod will have at least three and-a-half years remaining
on his sentence.
Penrod was arrested on the charges in 1997 after being
forced to return home from an LDS mission. From the
beginning of his arrest, he has been housed at the Juab
County Jail, Nephi, and, later, at the Utah State Hospital
in Provo.
As part of Penrod's 1998 plea agreement, 18 other
criminal counts involving sexual abuse of several of
Penrod's minor-aged relatives, were dismissed. "This is a
case of a tragic family melt-down," said David Leavitt, Juab
County attorney, prosecutor.
"While allegations that James W. Penrod was sexually
abused as a child by a relative of his are extremely
serious," said Leavitt, "that does not explain nor excuse
his conduct."
Leavitt said that Penrod committed sexual acts on the
children just prior to leaving on an LDS Church mission to
Pennsylvania. While on the mission, he wrote a sexually
explicit letter to a boy.
"Something endemic to all of this is pornography made
available to children," said Davis. "There are those on
crusades who attempt to protect pornography, but I condemn
it."
He had a difficult time deciding whether he should
recommend prison or probation with therapy for Penrod, said
Leavitt. "While concern for the safety of the victims in
this case are of primary importance, society should also be
concerned with rehabilitation people."
"I think everyone agrees that the day will come when
Mr. Penrod again will walk the streets of Nephi, Utah," said
Leavitt.
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