As someone else said, we must not be getting the whole story here? He must have a long history of such behavior and refused to alter his behavior?
According to my understanding of criminal law—derived from repeated viewings of episodes of Law and Order—a person charged with one criminal act can't be tried, judged guilty, and sentenced on the basis of prior bad acts. As I read the story, he was sentenced to life in prison for a single act of hugging (unwanted hugging, yes, and so, if he did it, a crime, no question). The sentence appears not to fit the crime based on the information we have before us.
In the meantime, consider the off-color joke about the old West where a man walks into the bar and sees a bunch of men sitting at the tables with *sheep*. He can't believe it, and begins complaining until someone takes him aside and explains that there just aren't enough women to go around.
So the man thinks, OK, I get it. He sidles up to the bar and starts putting the moves on an ewe sitting there.
Everyone else gasps in horror, and he blurts out, "Well, then, you're just a bunch of hypocrites then! Why can't I strike up a conversation with a sheep too?"
Someone quietly says, "But...that's the SHERIFF'S girl!"
Cheers!
I agree the sentence does not seem to fit the crime. Of course, it is in fact hard to believe that life plus six years would even be statutory for the crimes listed.
Of course keep in mind that Mn could have a habitual criminal statute, ie 3 strikes and you are out, as some states do? Other than that, I agree with you.