Criminal Experience

I recently watched a court trial down at the courthouse on the fifth floor. And for those of you who don't know, this floor is where felonies get taken care of. This preliminary hearing was for Richard Hal Culley to make his plea and to get his sentencing. Culley was being charged with sexually assaulting a 16 year old girl this past summer. He took nude pictures of the young girl and put them on his computer and then he even put the pictures on a disc. The girl, a.k.a. the victim was in the courtroom but her name wasn't released because of reasons like embarrassment of what happened to her. Culley pleaded guilty, but denied the fact that he had submitted these pictures on the internet. He had also sent some inmates pictures of the girl, but denied that too. He said the only person he sent pictures to, were his ex-wife because he said that the girl looked like the ex-wife's daughter. Culley was a 68 year old man with a history of criminal records. Before Culley started sexually assaulting this girl, he would let the girl come over to use his internet. He was a neighbor to this girl, and noticed that she was always by herself because her mom was out doing her own thing. Culley would also buy the 16 year old alcohol, cigarettes, etc. In exchange for letting her use his computer and him buying her alcohol and other things he thought taking pictures of her was a good trade. When Culley would take pictures of the girl, he would either make her take her clothes off or leave only her bra and underwear on. He would then start taking pictures of her and touch himself. He had also told her that he wasn't interested in "her," but he was interested in her "parts." Then he climbed on top of her and began to rape her. This girl was ashamed of herself and disgusted with this old man and what he did to her. She has to live with this for the rest of her life now. The judge sentenced Richard Culley to 12 years at the penitentiary. Only 3 years minimum, and 15 years for the maximum. This experience was a great way to see how the trial processing really works. You can actually see how the process is used in person.