Serial abuser gets 11 more years

Serial abuser gets 11 more years

Published: September 29, 2005
By KATIE WILLSON
Of the News-Register

Judge Cal Tichenor sentenced a former school teacher and church pastor Tuesday to an additional 11 years in prison for repeatedly sexually abusing an adopted daughter over a two-year period when the family lived in Hopewell.

David Gilmore, 40, was sentenced to 19 years in prison by a Marion County judge in June for abusing the same daughter while the family lived in St. Paul.

Under an agreement negotiated with prosecutors, Gilmore pleaded guilty in Yamhill County to one count each of first-degree sexual penetration and first-degree sex abuse, both Measure 11 offenses carrying long mandatory minimums. In exchange, six other counts were dropped.

The prosecution and defense agreed the term for one of the Yamhill County counts would run concurrently with the term Gilmore faces on the Marion County convictions. They left it to Tichenor to decide whether the other term also would run concurrently or would instead run consecutively, tacking on additional time.

Tichenor made it consecutive, bumping the total time Gilmore is facing from 19 years to 30. And under Measure 11, there is no possibility of parole or early release on any other grounds.

"It's hard to imagine a more complete violation of trust," Deputy District Attorney Debra Markham told the court. And Gilmore seemed to concede that.

"I've committed a crime against another human being, a precious unique child," Gilmore said in a written statement. "I allowed myself to be drawn into a temptation I ultimately succumbed to. I failed my highest calling as a father and husband."

While neither his wife nor his daughter attended the proceeding, Gilmore said he prayed his daughter would find healing and be filled with God's grace.

Gilmore got plenty of support from other quarters.

Attorney Stephen Lipton of Salem told Tichenor the general public wouldn't appreciate the difference between 19 years and 30, but his client certainly would. A family friend pleaded with Tichenor to give Gilmore an opportunity to seek therapy so he could "overcome this horrible monster inside of him."

Gilmore's father, Robert, said, "We love and respect our son very much. He's a good father to his seven children, a good husband to his wife. By the time he gets out, his mother and I may not be around."

But Tichenor told the defendant, "Everything stated about you completely ignores what you've done to this child - the fact that you would go into her room in the middle of the night and molest her."

He said Gilmore's supporters were disregarding the likelihood of lifelong trauma to the victim, who wasn't even 12 when the abuse began.

"I read that you're a pastor," Tichenor said. "As a pastor, you should realize that there is no temptation you cannot overcome. You deliberately did it over and over and over again."

The judge said his job was two-fold - to show the child she's not at fault and to hold the defendant accountable for the crimes he's committed against the state. Forgiveness is someone else's territory, he said.