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Posted on 07/10/2003 12:05:58 AM PDT by chance33_98
Sex offender to get sentence reduction
Raymond Butte, 51, the former Burney area man currently serving in excess of a life term for sex crimes against his daughter and others, will have his sentenced reduced.
According to Shasta County District Attorney Gerald Benito, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in a California case involving a particular statute of limitations law in child molest cases.
Statewide the ruling affected 800 cases, three of those in Shasta County, including Buttes.
One inmate, Richard Alexander has been released from custody. Another, David Berry, may be released, pending the outcome of a review of his case.
Butte's case contains other convictions that are not impacted by the ruling, Benito says the case is currently being reviewed in his office to what the modified sentence will be.
He was found guilty of committing lewd acts on a child under 14 and a series of forcible sex offenses, May 2, 2002. He was sentenced to 188 years in state prison.
The investigation of the case began in 1998 when Rose Staley Wilson reported that she had been the victim of a continuous molest by her biological father, Raymond Butte, since she was 9 or 10 years old.
Wilson reported that she had a child by him when she was 19 and the forcible sex acts continued until she was 27.
She also reported that he had forced her to marry a 66-year-old man to hide the fact that she was carrying Butte’s baby.
Two nieces and a nephew also testified at the trial.
Butte had adopted them in 1983 following the death of their parents.
The nieces, now adults, testified that he sexually abused them as children.
DNA evidence was admitted which showed him to be the father of both Wilson and her son.
Butte denied knowing he fathered his daughter’s child. He said his love for Wilson had been mutual and that one of the other children he had molested was a prostitute.
In sentencing Butte to the 188 years, the judge noted that the crimes were vicious and that it was obvious that Butte didn’t plan to change.
"The Shasta County District Attorney's Office is extremely disappointed in the United State Supreme Court's ruling and the regrettable impact on these Shasta County victims." Benito says.
"The California Attorney General's office has indicated that it does not intend to request a re-hearing or reconsideration before the United States Supreme Court. Consequently his ruling by the Supreme Court is final and must be accepted." he says.
Benito says his office, including the Victim Witness Unit has contacted the victims listed in all of the affected cases.
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If the Supreme Court decision means the convictions don't count, then technically how can Benito even do this? It would also mean that he won't be listed on sex offender rolls or be subject to laws requiring notification of police or neighbors. (Unless he has other unaffected sex offender convictions, is that the case?)
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