Sandy MaloneSpringfield, MO – A sex offender convicted of the statutory rape of a 16-year-old girl was just sentenced to probation for a second rape he committed while on probation for the first rape.
Beau Gormley, 33, pleaded guilty to having sex with a juvenile employee on a prep table in the Italian restaurant he managed in Ozark in June of 2014, KYTV reported.
Police said Gormley forced the teen to change her date of birth on her job application after they had sex so that he could claim that he thought his victim was older, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
Gormley was sentenced to a 120-day sex offender program, and afterwards, he was released on probation.
But 34 days after he got out of sex offender program in 2016, he was accused of raping a woman with whom he’d had a prior relationship, according to KYTV.
He was arrested, tried, and convicted again.
“This defendant, who has a prior conviction for having sex with a 16 year-old employee, 34 days after he was released from the sex offender assessment unit, raped the mother of his children,” Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson told KYTV.
Police said Gormley pressured the woman to lay down with him and perform oral sex on him, and she eventually agreed. But when she got into bed with Gormley, he held her down and raped her, the Springfield News-Leaders reported.
But on Feb. 22, Judge Calvin Holden only sentenced Gormley to five years of probation on the conviction for second-degree rape despite the fact it was his second rape conviction in less than three years.
Both Gormley’s probation officer and his sex abuse program counselor had testified that the serial rapist was making progress in therapy, according to KYTV.
“So the judge was able to hear from somebody who has expertise in this type of treatment, who has supervised and treated him for quite some time, and came to a conclusion that continuity under these circumstances was going to be warehousing him in a prison,” Gormley’s defense attorney Jason Coatney explained after the verdict.
The probation-only verdict outraged many in the community, and set off a massive firestorm on social media.
“Both leadership and members of our organization were outraged at this news,” read a press release from the local chapter of the #MeToo movement, according to the Springfield News-Leader. “We strongly believe that one of the best ways to lower the rates of sexual assault is to punish perpetrators.”
“Rulings like this send a strong message to rapists that they can get away with it,” the statement continued. “Not only is it unjust, but sends the message to victims that pursuing justice isn’t worth it.”
Prosecutors had asked for the maximum sentence of seven years in prison for Gormley, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
Gormley’s attorney argued that his client hadn’t begun sex offender counseling after being released from the sex offender program when he committed the rape, and should therefore be given only probation.
The angry prosecutor took to social media to quote President Ronald Reagan after the verdict.
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the law breaker. It’s time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions,” Patterson tweeted.
The local #MeToo chapter called Gormley’s sentence a “setback to the efforts of our organization and city leaders who are invested in regaining the trust of survivors, getting more women to report, and ensuring that justice is served more even-handedly,” according to the Springfield News-Leader.
The group said Holden’s ruling has made other victims going through the prosecution process afraid their voices will not be heard and that they will not get justice.