Sex offender gets 25 years in prison
Sex offender gets 25 years in prison
While the case of Joseph Edward Tetreault is far from over, Judge Phyllis Rosier took care of the next quarter century of his life Monday.
Tetreault will be spending the next 25 years in prison and then will spend five years after release on sexual offender probation. After that time he will, for the rest of his life, be registered as a sex offender no matter where he lives.
Tetreault, 55, was found guilty in July by a jury of two counts of sexual battery with great force and two counts of lewd and lascivious assault on a child between 12- and 16-years-old.
"I'm pleased with the verdict," prosecutor Ralph Yazdiya said after the trial. "I'm glad that the jury looked at all the evidence and found him guilty."
He could have been sentenced to 60 years in prison and the rest of his life on sexual offender probation. The relatively light sentence surprised many in the courthouse.
However, he will be 80-years-old when released from prison should he serve the entire sentence.
There is one count of lewd and lascivious assault on a child less than 12 remaining against Tetreault and he has indicated that he will be going forward with trial on that charge as well.
Yazdiya had separated the charges in an attempt to keep the victims from having to go through the torment of testifying in open court.
Prior to his jury trial the prosecutor had offered Tetreault a plea deal of eight years in prison followed by five years of sexual offender probation.
"I just wanted to keep the girl off the stand," Yazdiya said. "It's very difficult for her to have to talk about this."
According to police records, Tetreault sexually assaulted his two minor relatives, both girls, over a period of more than eight years.
Rather than protecting the children, he began molesting one of the girls when she was less than 12-years old. And that abuse continued for nearly a decade.
The children's mother claimed that she had no idea the abuse was going on.
Tetreault's abuse was discovered when a letter was found in which the younger girl described the ongoing deviancy.
An associate of the family brought the allegations to the attention of the Baker County Sheriff's Department.
Tetreault and the younger child were brought to the Sheriff's Office for questioning and the police report states that on the way to the office, Tetreault threatened his younger step-daughter demanding to know "if she told anyone."
At another time during his deviant behavior it was reported that he threatened to kill the children if they ever told anyone what was going on.
During court testimony, a witness reiterated that statement.
