Booth sentenced for sexual abuse of minor

Andrew D. Brosig
Posted 7/20/18

Michael Booth, the former Southeast High School assistant basketball coach who pleaded guilty in April to third degree sexual abuse of a minor in connection with a relationship with a 16-year-old former player, will spend as much as the next eight years of his life behind bars.

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Booth sentenced for sexual abuse of minor

Posted

TORRINGTON – Michael Booth, the former Southeast High School assistant basketball coach who pleaded guilty in April to third degree sexual abuse of a minor in connection with a relationship with a 16-year-old former player, will spend as much as the next eight years of his life behind bars.

Booth was sentenced Wednesday by 8th District Court Judge Patrick Korell to not less than 31/2 years nor more than eight years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. Goshen County Attorney Kenneth Brown had requested a sentence of four to eight years, while Booth’s attorney, Cole Sherard of Laramie, argued mitigating circumstances warranted a split sentence of just one year in the Goshen County Jail, followed by probation.

In imposing the sentence, Korell said Booth’s “removal from society” was warranted, and necessary, due to the nature of the crime.

“There should be punishment to this type of crime, because of the seriousness of the effect, the ripple effect, in the community,” Korell said. “You really did take advantage of your position (of authority as a coach), your personal desires, to sacrifice the last vestiges of this child’s youth.”

In addition to the prison term, with credit for time served, Korell imposed no fines, but did impose fees of $50 to the crime victim’s compensation fund, $75 for drug and alcohol screening and $35 in court costs.

Booth pleaded guilty in April following a March hearing to exclude his confession he had intercourse with the victim. Goshen County Sheriff’s investigators Rick Scott and Sgt. Kory Fleenor testified in March that Booth had confessed in October 2017 to the affair, which occurred in the spring of that year.

The defense claimed at the time the confession had been coerced and should be excluded. The court disagreed, leading to Booth changing his plea to guilty.

On Wednesday, Sherard called multiple witnesses – including Booth’s once-estranged wife Lindsy – to argue for a lighter sentence from the court. In Wyoming, sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree carries a maximum penalty.

Family friend Derek Jackson testified he’s known Booth since he was a young boy. Booth is a client in Jackson’s local insurance business and a friend, Jackson said.

“This situation was a definite surprise, a heartbreak to me,” Jackson told the court. “Following the news, I reached out to Mr. Booth to see if what I’d heard had, in fact, happened. He affirmed it had.

“I felt like my role was that of investing in Michael to see if he was ready for a life change,” he said. “He was. My role was to reach out to him to make sure this never happened again.”

Sherard also called Adam Walker, a marriage and family counseling therapist from Cheyenne. Walker told the court he’d met with Booth several times since his October confession. 

“Michael told me he was really struggling with anger,” Walker said. “It had become a detriment to him as a person.”

During cross-examination, Brown asked if Walker had the opportunity to counsel the victim, Walker said he had not, while confirming Booth had expressed concern over a host of issues during therapy sessions, including sin, depression, fear, shame, guilt and despair.

“Would it be unusual to find sin, depression, fear, shame, guilt and despair might also be the feelings a 16-year-old who’d been violated by a 30-year-old man might feel?” Brown asked.

Walker agreed they were.

Booth’s wife Lindsy, who told the court they were in the process of reconciliation after she filed for divorce last year, said there had been a build-up to the May 2017 events.

“Our marriage started to go downhill in March 2017,” she said. “Michael started to withdraw from me, to spend tons of time on his cellphone.” 

Lindsy Booth told the court she’d also found several text message strings with the victim on Michael Booth’s phone. She testified to growing feelings of paranoia, as well as feelings of anger in her and her children.

“It became clear to me they planned on starting a relationship,” Lindsy Booth testified. “He had no place for me anymore. It got to a point where I realized there was no place for me – or it felt like there was no place for me – in my husband’s life anymore.”

She told the court she took out a restraining order and, in October 2017, filed for divorce. The couple then met again in January of this year, and “I lit into him pretty good. I realized not only had he broken the law, but ultimately he’d broken God’s law.”

Once a conversation started, Lindsy Booth testified, “He took complete responsibility, not only for this affair, but for the terrible things in our marriage. It has to be the power of the Holy Spirit working through him for the changes to last.

“I believe the old Michael is gone,” she said. “He’s a new man in Christ.”

In his closing statements, Brown requested a sentence of four to eight years incarceration, describing the victim as a “normal kid” who’s favorite course in school was English and who had a passion for basketball. 

“In a small community, I hear people talk, others hear people talk,” Brown said. “It’s been said the defendant should be given a break because he confessed. But Mr. Booth always held that he was represented by counsel and his attorney told him to turn himself in.”

Brown characterized the numerous telephone conversations, text messages and other interactions by as a “grooming period (to) make the victim more relaxed around him. Finally, in May, after sufficient grooming, Michael Booth took advantage of her, he said.

“We’ve also heard the notion this was consensual,” Brown said. “It’s improper to consider that a child may have consented, because we protect children because they’re incapable of giving informed consent.”

Arguing for leniency for his client, Sherard told the court Michael Booth “immediately” turned himself in to law enforcement and willingly confessed to having sex with the victim, despite his earlier arguments Booth’s confession was coerced and the six months between the affair and the confession.

“He voluntarily went in before the victim came forward, before anybody knew what was going on,” Sherard said. “He went (to counseling) as soon as he could, he worked on it. I think you see that from what Mrs. Booth has testified to.”

Additionally, Sherard took to task law enforcement and the legal system, noting again what he called the coercive nature of the confession.

“This is not how a criminal case should get before the court or before the sheriff,” he said. “My client talked to an attorney in town, game him confidential details. After my client provided confidential information, (the attorney) decided to go ahead and represent my client’s wife in divorce proceedings.

“This is not how it’s supposed to work,” Sherard said. “If you look at it this way, I’m not sure it ever would have come out. I’m not saying that to exonerate my clients. But, to me, it is a significant mitigating factor in this case.”

Sherard argued the court should impose a more lenient sentence of a year in the Goshen County Jail, followed by probation. He noted Booth’s strong ties to the community and the impact a longer prison sentence could have on the family, it’s business and, particularly, the children.

“He has no criminal history,” Sherard said. “He immediately took responsibility and confessed to
the crime.

“This was, no question, an illegal act, but it was not a forced act,” he said. “It was consensual. There was no force, no threats. They met at the fairgrounds, she started having sex with him.”

The victim chose not to testify at the sentencing hearing, but she did submit a written statement, which was read into the court record by county Victim Assistance Director Donna Duncan. In the statement, the victim said she “lost what was left of my childhood. It was taken from me.

“He took the respect I had for him as a coach and as an adult and treated it as if it were nothing,” she said in her statement. “He took my youth for himself.”

Before Judge Korell imposed the sentence, Michael Booth addressed the court, apologizing to the victim and her family, saying he was prepared to accept responsibility for his actions.

“I know what I’ve done may be unforgivable, but I’m truly sorry,” Booth said. “I know I’ve been a disappointment to my family and the whole, entire community.”

Korell noted the sentence of 3.5 to 8 years in prison includes mandatory sex offender registry and the stigma of being a convicted felon. He also noted the impact of the case on Booth’s family, beyond whatever sentence the court could impose.

“You occupied a position of trust,” the judge said. “You were a teacher not only of a sport, but of life-lessons in fairness, in sportsmanship. 

“You had a tremendous opportunity to act like a role model, to say ‘no,’ to not engage in this course of conduct,” Korell said. “You violated the trust of this individual, of her family and, unfortunately, of this community as well. I find that your removal from society is appropriate in this case, and necessary.”