HANCOCK COUNTY — The victim’s relative would not look at the defendant as she fought back tears and told the court the child he had molested had suffered enough and it was time to move on.
Matthew Brooks, 42, McCordsville, was facing three counts of child molestation arising from an incident reported in December 2017. On Wednesday, the court accepted a plea agreement dismissing the two most serious charges. Judge Terry Snow of Hancock County Superior Court 1 allowed Brooks to plead guilty to the third count — a Level 4 felony charge of child molestation involving fondling or touching.
Brooks received a 10-year sentence but will serve no prison time.
Snow accepted the plea deal during the sentencing hearing after hearing testimony from the victim’s relative and probation officer Mary Kay Dobbs.
Snow was not convinced Brooks appreciated the gravity of his actions surrounding the plea and insisted Brooks tell the court exactly what he had done to the child. However, Snow said he accepted the agreement because, like the victim’s relative, he thought it was in the best interest of the child.
Brooks was given a 10-year sentence with the first two years to be served under home detention with electronic monitoring and the remaining eight years on probation. He also will have to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life and is not allowed to have contact with the victim during his sentence.
The two dismissed counts were Level 1 felony child molestation charges that could have resulted in a 40-year sentence.
The sentencing hearing was emotional for the victim’s relative, who cried as she read a prepared statement to the court and also when the judge rendered his decision.
The child accused Brooks, of the 5000 block of North Attleburg Drive, McCordsville, of sexual assault, telling investigators the man touched her inappropriately while they were alone at his home, according to court documents.
During the investigation, the child told a representative from the Indiana Department of Child Services she had been abused, court documents state. Based on the girl’s description of what happened to her, investigators believed Brooks forced the child to engage in a sex act, according to court documents.
During the hearing, Sonia Leerkamp, a special prosecutor, told the court the defendant had no respect for the child and that he tried to manipulate the plea deal for his best interest.
Leerkamp’s view was backed by Dobbs, who had conducted a pre-sentence investigation and concluded Brooks was not owning up to what he had done.
Gillian Keiffner, Brooks’s attorney, had her client state he was guilty of the third count against him, but he maintained his innocence on the two Level 1 felony counts.
“The defendant clearly understands and he is asking the court to label him a sex offender,” Keiffner told the court.
