GREENFIELD — After four years of maddening delays and, finally, a mistrial that only deepened a family’s trauma, a sexual assault case finally ended Monday.
But the sentence handed down in a plea agreement — probation and no further jail time — infuriated the guardian of the victim, a young woman who spent all her formative years worrying about court dates and testifying in open court, the guardian said.
Following a trial last summer that ended in a hung jury and a plea agreement on 10 sex crimes, Terrell Gibson was sentenced after admitting he was guilty of one count of sexual misconduct, a low-level felony. He faces 18 months of sexual probation, but will serve no more jail time and will not have to register as a sex offender.
Gibson’s punishment dictates he will have to go to rehabilitation classes, be subject to searches by probation special deputies and have no contact with the victim during the duration of his sentence.
The guardian of the teen who accused Gibson read a powerful impact statement Monday in front of Judge Scott Sirk in Hancock Circuit Court. She told the court justice was not served and the victim is the one paying the ultimate price and not Gibson.
“We believe the process has failed her,” the woman said, reading from a prepared letter. “He’s getting a slap on the wrist… This is injustice at its worst.”
The state originally filed 16 criminal counts against Gibson in 2015. Six of those — all accusing him of child molesting — were dismissed prior to the case going before a jury last summer; jurors were told only of the 10 felony counts of sexual misconduct with a minor that Gibson still faced.
By the time of the sentencing Monday, Gibson had agreed to plead guilty to one Class D felony of sexual misconduct with a minor — a lesser offense than what he was originally charged with — and admit he had touched the victim inappropriately on at least one occasion.
Prior to accepting the plea agreement and handing down the sentence, the judge made Gibson admit in court he had indeed touched the girl inappropriately after Gibson claimed his innocence during a psychological evaluation filed just last week.
Like the family, deputy prosecutor Catherine Wilson was also frustrated with how the case unfolded from the mistrial last summer to the sentencing summation.
The case occurred right after crime classification laws were changed by the state legislature in 2014. The case also was complicated to begin with, she said.
“We had a time span of dates, age range, but then also legislative changes so those 16 charges took into account all of those things,” Wilson said. “We charged him the old way and the new way.”
The girl said the abuse happened repeatedly between 2012 and 2014 whenever she visited Gibson’s home in Greenfield.
Charges were filed against the defendant in November 2015 after the girl came forward to accuse Gibson of touching her inappropriately and forcing her to engage in sex acts.
After the guardian for the victim, who was not present at the sentencing hearing, read the impact statement, Sirk asked the guardian if she wanted him to reject the plea agreement and have another trial.
The woman, despite her disappointment in how the case was handled, said she felt it was best for the victim to get on with her life.
However, the woman left court with a final statement, saying it is incomprehensible to the family that Gibson does not have to register as a sex offender.
“No matter what, she was a child, and Terrell was the adult, and that’s the bottom line,” the woman said.
