CBS4 Investigation Finds Controversial Rape Sentence Not Unusual
By Brian Maass and Mark Ackerman
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - When Boulder District Court Judge Patrick Butler sentenced a convicted rapist to 20 years of probation and two years of work release, a public outcry followed calling the sentence for Austin Wilkerson "lenient" and "a slap on the wrist."
Upwards of 82,000 people signed an online petition to have the judge recalled. They were incensed because Butler did not send Wilkerson to prison.
But a CBS4 Investigation has found that Wilkerson's sentence was actually fairly typical.
"Many people in the community believe all sex offenders go to prison and that is not the norm," said Katharina Booth, Chief of the Boulder District Attorney's Sex Assault Unit. "In many ways the Austin Wilkerson case is not that unique," said the prosecutor.
In March 2014, Wilkerson and a female University of Colorado student were in the same group drinking and partying. The young woman said she was so drunk she vomited during the evening. Wilkerson indicated to friends that he would take the woman to his home and care for her. Instead, he raped her.
"He was like 'You can sleep in my bed, I will sleep on the couch,'" the woman told CBS4. "He was just an acquaintance. I sort of knew him and thought I could trust him but that proved wrong," said the woman.
The woman -- now 21 -- says she was incapacitated and unable to talk or respond. She described how Wilkerson sexually assaulted her and said she did not agree to any of the activity.
"I did not consent to any of this," she reiterated.
After a jury convicted Wilkerson, his first criminal infraction, the woman and Boulder prosecutors asked that he be sentenced to prison.
"I just wanted justice which was four to six years. I asked for the maximum sentence because I got the maximum sentence of a life sentence of having to suffer every day because of this," she said.
But Butler, the judge, said that after a lot of thought he decided to give Wilkerson two years of work release, meaning he has to stay at the jail at night but can leave during the day for work or school. Additionally, Butler gave Wilkerson 20 years of sex offender intensive supervised probation.
The victim says she feels like the system let her down.
However, a CBS4 analysis of 169 recent sex assault sentences handed down to young offenders in Colorado found roughly as many were sentenced to prison as were sentenced to various forms of probation.
- 58 percent were sentenced to either prison or jail for their sex crimes.
- But 42 percent were given either deferred sentences of various forms of probation -- like Austin Wilkerson.
Lisa Moses is a Denver-based defense attorney who has represented numerous male sex assault suspects.
"Probation is not an abnormal sentence," she said. "From my perspective they are not quick to sentence people for the rest of their lives. Seeing probation in a rape case is not that unusual."
Moses said in sex offense cases, long term probation is extremely difficult.
"Probation for sex offenders is exponentially more difficult than probation for other crimes."
She said the defendants are closely monitored and sex offender treatment programs are not easy to get through.
"This kind of probation isn't really a walk in the park. Judges don't take these things lightly and don't hand down these sentences lightly and to presume that the Judge did is the wrong presumption."
Wilkerson's attorney declined to discuss the case in detail and said Wilkerson would not be willing to comment.
Wilkerson's victim said the sexual assault drove her into a deep depression causing her emotional pain, financial loss and she said it "affected my whole life." She said by agreeing to be interviewed, she hopes other rape victims would be empowered to speak up and share their stories.
Although she said she is still disappointed Wilkerson was not sent to prison, she hopes "we scared him out of perpetrating again."
Additional Resources
See and hear the victim's entire 13 minute statement that she made in court to the judge at the sentencing hearing for Austin Wilkerson below:
CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass has been with the station more than 30 years uncovering waste, fraud and corruption. Follow him on Twitter @Briancbs4.
Mark Ackerman is a Special Projects Producer at CBS4. Follow him on Twitter @ackermanmark
