Coon Rapids sexual abuse victim: "I was molested 1,480 times"

Coon Rapids sexual abuse victim: "I was molested 1,480 times"

By Sarah Horner

shorner@pioneerpress.com

Posted: 03/30/2012 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated: 03/30/2012 09:07:05 PM CDT

Joseph L. Hunt was sentenced to serve 41 months in prison for sexually abusing his adoptive son, Chad Hunt, while he was growing up in their Coon Rapids home more than two decades ago. (Photo courtesy of the Anoka County sheriff's office)

People in the community knew Joe Hunt as a veteran police officer, but to his son, he was a sexual predator.

With his voice shaking, Chad Hunt told a crowded Anoka County courtroom Friday, March 30, that his adoptive father sexually abused him five times a week for eight years while he was growing up in their Coon Rapids home more than two decades ago. His only escape, the now-40-year-old said, was when he got to stay with his grandmother for three months every summer.

"By my estimation, I was molested 1,480 times," Chad Hunt said, adding that the memories haunt him daily.

"He is a criminal," Chad Hunt told Anoka County District Judge Dyanna Street before asking that his father - a retired Coon Rapids police officer - be sentenced to the maximum jail time allowed under state law for his crime of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

"The fact that he hid behind a badge makes him a coward," Chad Hunt said. "His portrayal as an upstanding citizen is a fraud."

After listening to Chad Hunt's statement, along with statements read by Chad Hunt's wife and sisters about the lingering impact of the abuse, Street opted to sentence the retired Coon Rapids police officer to 41 months in prison. The sentence was the maximum allowed under state law in the 1980s, when Hunt sexually abused his son.

"1,480 times...that kind of takes your breath away," Street said before delivering the sentence. "There is no sentence I can impart that can undo what has been done,

that can fix the nightmares."

Before sentencing, Street listened to Joe Hunt and his attorney, Joe Leunig, talk about the life Hunt has led since the abuse, one that has involved years of work as a police officer, scout leader, volunteer coach and "adoring" father and grandfather, Leunig said.

"(Joe Hunt) is a man who did wrong a quarter-century ago...but has since spent a lifetime atoning for those acts," Leunig said. "What would the community gain by putting this man in a cage for 41 months?"

"I know I can't turn the clock back, but, oh, I wish I could....My heart is broken," Joe Hunt said through tears. He added that he was sorry long ago for his acts and had since committed his life to community service.

The person he became after the abuse stopped "is who I really am," Hunt said.

Joe Hunt served as a Coon Rapids police officer from 1977 until he retired as an investigator in 2004.

He was charged in September with four counts of criminal sexual conduct after Chad Hunt reported the abuse he suffered decades earlier to authorities.

The veteran police officer accepted a plea deal in January that involved admitting to sexually abusing his son from 1984 to 1987, during which time Chad Hunt would have been 13 to 16 years old.

Chad Hunt alleges the abuse went on for much longer.

"Being me has been a lifelong curse," Chad Hunt said. "The emotional scars the victim is left with is my everyday reality."

The proceedings took place in front of a crowded courtroom, with many - including several law enforcement officers - wearing blue ribbons in support of Chad Hunt.

At the end, Joe Hunt was finally taken into custody.

Sarah Horner can be reached at 651-228-5539. Follow her at twitter.com/hornsarah.