No jail time for Missouri man convicted of molesting 11-year-old, giving her STD

Authored by theledger.com and submitted by wwabc

A Missouri man convicted of molesting an 11-year-old girl will serve no jail time.

TV station KFOR reports Joseph Meili was instead sentenced to five years of probation after he pleaded guilty to third-degree molestation. If he successfully completes probation, there's a chance the charge could be removed from his criminal record.

Meili reportedly met the girl through the MeetMe app. He told investigators he believed she was 18 and that he had been "catfished."

But Greene County senior assistant prosecuting attorney Elizabeth Fax told the Huffington Post she didn't believe that.

“To actually see her in person … he knew and just decided to go along with it,” she said.

After the alleged assault, the girl tested positive for chlamydia, according to KFOR.

IncognitoPornWindow on June 21st, 2019 at 04:17 UTC »

Joseph Meili was instead sentenced to five years of probation after he pleaded guilty to third-degree molestation. If he successfully completes probation, there’s a chance the charge could be removed from his criminal record.

I think i speak for us all when I say WTF?

Druggedhippo on June 21st, 2019 at 02:38 UTC »

Par for that county and judge.

It’s not uncommon for child molestation and statutory rape cases of this nature in Greene County to result in probation for the offender rather than prison time, both Pierson and Fax said.

Earlier on Friday, Fax appeared in court for the sentencing of another confessed child abuser: Avery Genovese of Bolivar, who was 21 years old when he was charged with the statutory rape and statutory sodomy of a 12-year-old girl he met online.

He pleaded guilty to both charges in January. Holden sentenced him to five years of supervised probation on Friday.

Holden has faced backlash in the past for handing down light sentences to child molesters. In 2016, he sentenced a 24-year-old man convicted of sexually abusing an 8-year-old child he was babysitting to 30 days in jail and five years of probation.

Holden outraged community members again in February after he sentenced a twice-convicted rapist to five years of supervised probation.

Beau Maurice Gormley, 33, of Republic, received the sentence after raping a woman a month into his probation, which he’d received for previously committing statutory rape against a 16-year-old employee who worked at a restaurant he managed.

Strom41 on June 21st, 2019 at 01:37 UTC »

Sad day when we don’t jail child molestors - today is that day.