Former church van driver sentenced in assault case

A 21-year-old former church van driver was sentenced to spend the next 90 days in jail for his part in a Nov. 7 statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl relatives said looked up to him as a mentor.

Richard Jacobsen was sentenced to six months in jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a charge that didn't reflect the seriousness of the crime, according to prosecutor Tom Gregory.

Jacobsen admitted to providing liquor to the girl who was assaulted while under the influence.

"This is not your typical contributing to a minor case," Gregory told Justice of the Peace Jim EnEarl. "When I first read the reports I was disgusted. We're not talking about one bad day. The whole course of conduct was reprehensible."

The girl's mother gave a statement at Jacobsen's sentencing about the impact the incident had on the victim and her family.

"Upon arriving at your apartment on the night of Nov. 7, my daughter remembers being excited about seeing the youth group van parked outside," she said. "She loved everything to do with that church and youth group."

The victim's mother said after her daughter was assaulted by two others, she was dumped by the side of the road in 17-degree weather, where she woke up and stumbled to a Laundromat before she passed out again.

"If she had frozen to death or been hit by a car, you would be facing murder charges not contributing to the delinquency of a minor," the victim's mother said in her statement.

The mother said the girl had to undergo a rape exam, take a double dose of the morning after pill and two antibiotics.

"She has to undergo repeated testing for HIV, hepatitis and an assortment of other STDs, so she gets to be repeatedly reminded of the trauma of that night," the mother said.

Gregory said the case took so long to charge because he had to decide whether to charge Jacobsen with a felony that would have carried a mandatory life sentence.

"From a legal standpoint this case is appropriately charged," Gregory said. "From a moral standpoint this is off the charts."

Jacobsen apologized to the victim and her family, his own family and the church.

"My family has a history of being in jail," he said. "I don't want to be like that. I would like to join the military."

He said he didn't want the girl to be at the party from the beginning, but when she arrived he was very drunk. He said he didn't know the girl was 14 until the next day.

"How drunk do you have to be to find a 14-year-old girl sexually attractive?" EnEarl asked Jacobsen. "I'm not sure I want to label you as a predator, but everything we are talking about fits the role of a predator. Putting you in jail for six months seems trivial for the damage done."

In addition to jail time, EnEarl ordered that Jacobsen be monitored for a year, which included wearing an ankle bracelet with a GPS tracker. He will have to undergo psychosexual counseling. He was forbidden to be alone with any female under the age of 18 and was ordered not to contact the victim or her family.

Another defendant, Zach Applewhite, 19, is facing a charge of statutory sexual seduction. The case is being charged as a gross misdemeanor because he was under 21 when the incident took place, according to Gregory.

A third party involved in the incident was not charged.