LOGAN, Utah, Nov. 26, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A Mantua man was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty of sexual abuse of a child.
According to a report from Cache Valley Daily, 44-year-old Ira Melvin Mathison was allowed to leave the state rather that face up to 15 years of jail time in Utah.
First District Judge Thomas Willmore noted that the victim’s mother had requested Mathison be allowed to return to Washington, where he had previously lived, the Cache Valley Daily article says.
The judge gave Mathison credit for 342 day served in the Cache County Jail, the report said, and ordered him to have no contact with the victim or her family.
Mathison was originally charged in December of 2018 with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, court records show. As part of a plea deal, one count was reduced to sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony, and the other was dismissed.
The charges stemmed from Mathison’s inappropriate touching of a 10-year-old girl he was babysitting.
At one point, Mathison denied the charges, and later he stated that the touching was brief, and perhaps he had mistaken the girl for his wife.
Mathison had faced 0 to 15 years in prison.
That is terrible. I cannot believe he let him go to another state and the other requested it. Who is liable when he does it again. I am blown away thT is not justice there is something wrong about this entire situation.