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Show Victim's Parents On Hand For Mike Hill Sentencing PANGUITCH The California parents of the victim of confessed child sex abuser Mike Hill and their son's attorney were in court on Thursday for Hill's sentencing, but Hill himself was not there. Byron and Diane Bean and attorney Sue Ann Honey, representing the Bean's son, had driven from Southern California for Hill's sentencing. Hill had entered a guilty plea on Sept. 9 to forcible sexual abuse against the Bean's then-17-year-old son. The crime is a second degree felony carrying a one-to-15-year prison term and a maximum fine of $18,500 or both. "It's been a long haul getting to this point for us, from first hearing about it the crime committed against their son to actually come to the point of sentencing," said Diane Bean, overcome with emotion, emo-tion, trembling and at times almost inaudible, to Judge David Mower. "I feel this is a ludicrous courtesy to offer him to have him plead guilty, and he doesn't even have to be here to hear his sentence! " Diane Bean first brought Hill's crime to the attention of the Utah Attorney General's Office in October Octo-ber 1994, not realizing that investigators investi-gators and attorneys in Salt Lake City and Garfield County, intent on prosecuting owners and employees of the North Star wilderness program pro-gram for troubled youth, not only already knew about Hill's crime but had his confession on tape. She told them she had just learned that Hill had sexually molested her then-minor then-minor son while her son was enrolled en-rolled at North Star and Hill was his counselor. The state, assuring her she had come to the right place for help, filed charges against North Star the next day, but not in connection with her charges against Hill. For several months, state investigators had been looking into the March 1994 death of a youth enrolled in the program. The state, which planned to use Hill as its star witness in its May 1995 preliminary hearing on North Star, failed to formally investigate Hill and bring him to justice in a timely fashion. Although the state sent its investigators all over the nation in preparing its case against North Star, investigators never asked potential witnesses questions about Hill. Despite Diane Bean's repeated calls for action against Hill and justice for her victimized son, she was ignored over a period of almost two years. The state's attorneys claimed they sent Hill's file and his confession confes-sion immediately to Washington County for follow through, but no one followed through. The state refused to reveal his whereabouts, saying he was in Arizona, but it was subsequently learned he had also been in Kansas attending college. Hill testified at the preliminary hearing where he received the same clearly favorable treatment he would continue to receive in later court appearances from prosecuting attorneys, the judge, and from Bob and Sally Bacon, all of whom knew about Hill's crime. The Bacons were witnesses for the prosecution See Victim's Parents On Hand For Hill's Conviction On Page 4-A Victim's Parents On Hand For Mike Hill's Conviction ("From Pape 1 -A1 1 o - -i at the hearing in which nine of the company's owners and employees were charged with negligence and child abuse in the death of the Bacon's son Aaron while he was enrolled at North Star. As a result of testimony presented at the hearing, the nine were all bound over for trial. The Garfield County News began to learn of some of the allegations alle-gations against Hill at the end of 1995 and connected with Diane Bean early in 1996 and later, with parents of others who may allegedly may have been Hill's victims. The Utah State Attorney General's Office Of-fice continued to maintain they had no "deal" with Hill. The Garfield County News published pub-lished the Mike Hill story on April 25, 1996. The trial, which had been set for April 29 was subsequently continued to October and moved to Richfield. Charges of forcible sexual abuse, a second degree felony, were finally brought against Hill in August, with his initial court appearance set for Sept. 9. ' Neither Mrs. Bean, her son, nor her son's attorney were notified of the rights of victims and victim's family as required by Utah law and they were not present for Hill's initial appearance. At that appearance appear-ance Hill waived his rights to a preliminary pre-liminary hearing, entered a guilty plea under a special plea agreement and was released to go back to college in Kansas pending the findings of a pre-sentence evaluation. evalua-tion. His formal sentencing was set for Sept. 9 and, at the last minute, min-ute, was continued. The Garfield County News contacted die Victims Rights office at the Utah State Attorney Generals Office just after Sept. 9 and was sent the information that should have been provided to the Beans and their attorney months earlier. That information was forwarded by the News to the Beans and their attorney. attor-ney. A day or two later, Marlynn Lema, the Washington County assistant attorney assigned to prosecute Hill, finally forwarded the same material to Sue Ann Honey. At last Thursday's sentencing hearing, the Beans and their son's attorney were gratified at one small change, that Hill, if he is in any area longer than two weeks, must register as a sex offender for the next 36 months of his probation. Anyone checking on Hill would be referred to the Washington County Attorney's Office. At the end of that 36-month period, the entire matter will be dismissed and he will no longer be required to register. He will have the same clear record that North Star owners found when they hired him and there would be nothing at that point to prevent his once again working with youth. Hill "appeared" by telephone at Thursday's hearing to the dismay of the Beans and their son's attorney. "It appears ... that there is hesitancy hesi-tancy to inconvenience Mr. Hill, and they are not happy with that," their attorney Sue Ann Honey told Judge David Mower. She said her clients were "understandably not happy" at Hill's absence. Judge Mower referred to a letter Mrs. Bean had written to the court expressing her frustration that Hill would not be required to spend time in jail and that his crime would be dismissed at the end of 36 months. She replied, "If something should come up five years from now, there won't be a prior conviction on file." Attorney Honey, acknowledging that Mrs. Bean was having difficulty diffi-culty expressing herself because of emotion, said, "the part that is so horrible about the crime is that he was in charge of troubled boys, boys who needed supervision, and took advantage of a weakness for his own personal gratification. And it's our understanding that my client was not the only victim of this man and we're under the belief that there may have been as many as five or more victims." She continued, "I think Mrs. Bean's concerns about future propen-sity for this type of behavior behav-ior are realistic and I believe it is one of the reasons for her concern about an eventual dismissal." Hill was ordered to complete programs in Lawrence, Kansas at the Haskell Health Care Center, where he will have once-a-month counseling and, at his own expense, at the Burt Nash Mental Health Program where he will participate in 90-minute once-a-week sexual offenders group therapy for two years. A report on Hill's progress will be made to Washington County every 60 days by his counselor at Haskell health Care Center. He was also ordered not to be with anyone under 18 unless accompanied by an adult. |