Tthe state of Missouri originally gave this deputy probation. The DOJ civil rights division tried the case and got a 14 year sentence with no possibility of probation. An FYI, the civil rights division is hated by conservatives and was severely weakened during Bush's term. Thank god for Obama.
Former Jackson County Deputy Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Civil Rights Violation
And why did he get probation?
PoliceCrimes.com Forum ~ :: View topic - Judge Schieber Allows Deputy Steven Burgess To Walk Free
Ridiculous.
Former Jackson County Deputy Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Civil Rights Violation
Sexually Abused Teen Girl While She Was Detained
WASHINGTON– A former Jackson County, Mo., sheriff’s deputy was sentenced in federal court today for violating the civil rights of a teenage girl whom he sexually assaulted in his patrol car, the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri announced today.
Steven W. Burgess, 35, of Independence, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith this morning to 14 years in federal prison without parole.
On Nov. 12, 2009, Burgess pleaded guilty to depriving a 15-year-old girl of her Constitutional rights by sexually assaulting her while she was in his custody. Burgess was on-duty and in uniform when he encountered the victim and some friends in Haynes Park in Sibley, Mo., at approximately 2 a.m. on July 24, 2007. Burgess told the victim’s friends to leave the park, but ordered her to stay at the park with him.
Burgess then put the victim in handcuffs and, while patting her down, inappropriately touched her in a sexual manner. Burgess removed the handcuffs and told her to get into the car, keeping the door open and her feet touching the ground outside the car. Burgess stood in front of her and compelled her to perform oral sex on him while she sat in his patrol vehicle. At one point, Burgess made her get on her knees to perform oral sex on him.
Afterward, Burgess took the victim to her aunt’s house. He told her that she could not tell anyone about the forced oral sex, or he would disclose that she had been caught in the park drinking. Once inside the house, she told her family what had happened and was immediately taken to Children’s Mercy Hospital.
Burgess violated the victim’s right not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law, which includes the right to bodily integrity. Burgess used force against his victim and placed her in fear of death, serious bodily injury and kidnapping.
“A law enforcement officer who abuses his authority by sexually assaulting a child not only violates the law, but also the child’s civil rights and the public trust,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez for the Civil Rights Division said. “Today’s sentence should remind any law enforcement officer inclined to violate the most basic Constitutional rights of our citizens that we will aggressively prosecute.”
“No one is above the law,” U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips said. “When a uniformed law enforcement officer violates the civil rights of a vulnerable victim, especially in such a repugnant manner, he must be held to the highest standard of justice. Today’s lengthy prison sentence holds this defendant accountable for violating the public trust and abusing his position of authority to victimize a young girl. We are sending a strong message to our community that civil rights violations won’t be tolerated.”
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney K. Michael Warner and Trial Attorney Eric L. Gibson with the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division. It was investigated by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
And why did he get probation?
PoliceCrimes.com Forum ~ :: View topic - Judge Schieber Allows Deputy Steven Burgess To Walk Free
Deputy Steven Burgess Will Get No Prison Time in Teen’s Sex Abuse Case
Steven Burgess was on duty as a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy last July when he found a group of teens partying after hours in a park near Fort Osage.
He rousted the bunch, except for a 15-year-old girl. After the others had gone, the deputy put the girl in the passenger seat of his patrol car and, according to court documents, had her perform a sex act on him.
On Friday, Burgess, 33, now a former deputy, walked into a Jackson County courtroom facing up to 14 years in prison. He walked out a free man.
Circuit Judge Robert M. Schieber gave him the full 14 years, but then suspended the sentence and placed Burgess on five years of probation.
“We are very disappointed,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jim Kanatzar said. “We thought incarceration was the appropriate sentence.”
The prosecutor’s office asked for seven years each for the charges of statutory sodomy and deviate sexual assault to which Burgess had pleaded guilty in December.
Even Burgess’ attorney, John P. O’Connor, thought he could see some prison time. O’Connor knows that Schieber’s decision probably surprised some people, but he thinks justice was served.
O’Connor pointed out the defendant’s military service, previously unblemished record as a law enforcement officer, marriage with three children and good psychological assessment.
Also, O’Connor said, putting a former police officer such as Burgess in prison is dangerous.
“It would be like a death sentence,” O’Connor said.
And it’s not like Burgess got off easy, O’Connor said. He lost his job, must register as a sex offender and may have to move because his house is near a school.
Palle Rilinger, executive director of the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault, declined to criticize the sentencing but said that when adolescents are abused by authority figures, “the offense is even more magnified.”
Ridiculous.
