Posted on 12/02/2007 10:35:11 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
A 40-year-old man who was named Father of the Year five years ago by a local radio station was sent to prison Friday for 15 years for having sex with a 12-year-old friend of his stepdaughter.
Ouati Ali, formerly of Sun Prairie, is already serving a 14-year sentence handed down in October for a previous sexual assault that came to light only after he was charged in 2005 in the latest case.
Dane County Circuit Judge John Markson gave Ali 15 years in prison to be followed by 15 years of extended supervision in the latest case, and made that consecutive to the 14 years to which Ali was sentenced earlier in the fall by Dane County Circuit Judge Patrick Fiedler.
The sentence by Fiedler is under the state's old sentencing law, so Ali will be eligible for parole in that case after serving one-fourth of the sentence and will reach a mandatory release date when he reaches two-thirds of the sentence. When either of those occurs, he will then begin serving the 15 years behind bars ordered by Markson.
Ali had been involved in the Madison Fatherhood Alliance and formed a chapter in Sun Prairie, according to testimony at his sentencing hearing Friday, and was named the local Father of the Year for 2002-2003 by WIBA radio.
At Friday's hearing, Ali, who was known as Brent Gilbert before changing his name, continued to maintain he was innocent of the sexual assault despite a jury finding him guilty in April 2006.
"I'm here to say I didn't do this," he told Markson before being sentenced. "I would never harm a child."
Markson disagreed, saying Ali's record shows that despite times when he has done good works in society, "You are, sadly, a career criminal."
It was at the outset of the trial for first-degree sexual assault in April 2006 that evidence emerged that resulted in Ali being charged with both the 2005 sexual assault of the 12-year-old girl in Sun Prairie and a 1991 sexual assault of a girl who was then 14.
As part of the evidence presented to jurors in the most recent case, Assistant District Attorney Doug McLean called other young women to testify who had been assaulted by Ali to show Ali had a proclivity for having sex with minor girls.
Among them was a woman with whom investigators talked in 1991 when she was 14 as part of an investigation into allegations Ali was having sex with minors then. When detectives asked about it, she denied having sex with Ali. But when she found out that in 2006 Ali was going to trial, this time with the 12-year-old girl, the now-29-year-old woman said she had lied to police in 1991 to protect Ali, but would now tell the truth, and that she did have sex with him in 1991. That led to the charge for which Fiedler sentenced Ali in October.
In the most recent case, the 12-year-old said she went to Ali's house to get a ride to school but when she got there her friend had already left and Ali was alone in the house. He took her into a bedroom, she said, and had sexual intercourse with her. In Wisconsin, it is first-degree sexual assault to have sex with a child of 12.
In court Friday the girl's mother and older sister said the assault has created emotional turmoil not only for the girl but for the entire family.
"It's been very strenuous, very hard," the mother said. "What he took away from my daughter she will never get back," she told the judge, but added, "We feel sorry for him. We forgive him for what he has done."
Several friends of Ali also spoke, saying that Ali was kind, considerate and helpful and they could not imagine that the allegations against him were true. His ex-wife and stepdaughter echoed those remarks and also indicated they did not believe the allegations.
McLean, in arguing for a prison term of 20 years to be followed by 15 years of extended supervision, disagreed, saying there was "overwhelming evidence" at trial including the "compelling testimony" of the victim as well as forensic evidence which showed a stain on the bed contained the victim's DNA as well as DNA from Ali and his live-in girlfriend.
"I have no doubt that many of the good things said about him are genuine and accurate," McLean said, but he added that "good people do bad things," and that Ali had assaulted young women before.
Attorney David Geier, the latest in a string of lawyers to represent Ali, conceded that a prison term was a certainty but he asked the judge to limit it to five years behind bars, with 20 years of extended supervision to follow. Geier reasoned that Ali will get treatment in prison and be less of a risk when he gets out, and as a serious sex offender will get the tightest supervision the Department of Corrections has when he is on extended supervision.
For his part Ali turned to the family of the victim and apologized, saying that while he did not commit the crime he could empathize with the victim.
"I am terribly sorry for what you are going through," he said. "I pray that this too shall pass."
But he continued to insist he was innocent and at one point called McLean, the prosecutor, a brilliant man. "But brilliant doesn't always make you right," Ali quickly added.
He ended his speech to the judge oddly, by asking that a computer confiscated in a search of his home be returned to his family.
Markson was obviously not impressed by Ali's remarks.
"Your inability to come to any degree of realistic assessment of this and show remorse is appalling," the judge said. "I am without words to describe how appalling that is."
The judge said the sentence of 15 years behind bars and 15 years of extended supervision which will be added on to the 14 years to which Ali was sentenced in October will mean that "this young woman, and we as a society, know you are not going to do this again."
Wonder if WIBA radio is going to revoke his Father of the Year award.
I wonder what the criteria are for the Father of the Year award? I wonder if it like the media’s glowing Mother’s Day profiles of unwed mothers?
A member of Religion of Peace?
If the award were “Mohammedan Father of the Year”, this would all make sense.
Poor guy! All those years wituout access to camels, donkeys or goats.... made him do it.
Ain’t this religion of piece a great thing???
“Ali, who was known as Brent Gilbert before changing his name”
Too bad the judge didn’t have the discretion to impose Shari’a law
and punishment in order to be culturally sensitive to the defendent.
Madison....we have a problem.
Too bad the judge didnt have the discretion to impose Sharia law
and punishment in order to be culturally sensitive to the defendent.
Under Sharia law the guy would have been set free and the little girl punished for arousing him.
Scary that somebody this naive is a judge.
That would mean that the girls would be whipped and stoned.
ouati, what have you been up to?
These people are a lot more forgiving than I would be!
laughing AT you, BIGOT.
free dixie,sw
How many times have we heard this one before?
Wasn't this Michael Jackson's favorite line?
btw, you've made a total FOOL out of yourself (with your empty-headed,bigoted,racist, ignorant, off-point comments/cartoons) to the point that FEW FReepers on the WBTS threads will post TO you. (i post to you only to RIDICULE you.)
are you now trying to make yourself look STUPID & BIGOTED to everybody on FR??? (fyi, ridicule is the best weapon against a BIGOT. this means YOU, bigot.)
to all:
should you want to know why the DAMNyankee minority of northerners (no more than 10-15% of the northern population) are DESPISED for their UN-thinking,vulgar-talking, arrogant PREJUDICE & stupid, south-HATING, loutish behavior, you have only to read the words of "x, the BIGOT", to understand.
as my grandfather used to say:
"Scratch a DAMNyankee & ignorant PREJUDICE & hatefulness will flow from the wound. If the DAMNyankees were not so busy HATING the southland & southerners, they would be some other sort of BIGOT". (my grandfather was 100% correct about DYs & about lots of other things.)
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
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