A 23-year-old Springfield, Missouri man was sentenced to a month in jail after admitting to molesting a 8-year-old multiple times.
In mid-August, Greene County Judge Calvin Holden sentenced babysitter Joseph Presley to 30 days in jail and five years of probation after he admitted to touching the child twice.
Presley could have faced up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty.
According to KSPR ABC 33, the babysitter molested the child at his home when he was eight and nine-years-old.
The now 9-year-old told investigators that he was prevented from calling his mom after one incident.
While there have been outrage over the short sentence, Presley’s lawyer Dee Wampler thinks it is fair.
“I’m sure a lot of the public is going to say, ‘Lock him up and throw away the key. And they’re in favor of strong law enforcement, as long as the law applies to the other fella. And not to their child,” says Wampler. “Do we really want to take a boy that’s not institutionalized, that has not been in prison before, and put him in prison with some real sex molesters, and some real rapists? So that he can really learn the trade? Is that what we want?”
Wampler adds that Presley was a churchgoing citizen who was molested as a child.
“It’s not to say it justifies it, but it’s an explanation probably as to why it happened,” he posits.
Presley will have to register as a sex offender.