Molester sentenced to 10 years

March 22, 2007
BY RUTH ANN KRAUSE Post-Tribune correspondent

The 12-year-old girl walked to the witness stand Wednesday and confronted the man who molested her when she was 4 or 5 years old.

"I feel that 10 years is not enough," the girl said. "He'll do the same thing again," she told Lake Superior Court Judge Salvador Vasquez.

Gerardo Gonzalez, 35, of Hammond, an illegal alien who could be deported after he serves his 10-year prison sentence, said nothing when it was his turn to speak at his sentencing hearing for attempted child molesting and another sex crime. The plea called for a 10-year prison term.

The child's grandmother, however, had plenty to say. She became the girl's legal guardian when she was a month old.

"You took the spirit out of her eyes," she said, holding up a photo of the girl with an engaging smile and bright eyes. "You destroyed part of that for your own sexual gratification."

"I don't understand why you are on this earth. I want you to never hurt another woman, another female, another child, another animal again." The grandmother said Gonzalez killed the girl's pet rabbit, hamster and kitten in front of her. Gonzalez fled the U.S. but was captured and has been in jail for 274 days.

The child, who has excelled in sports and academics, has stayed busy with school, extracurricular activities and her friends. "The stigma attached to child molesting is so horrible," the grandmother said.

The girl told Vasquez she's never been able to talk about the molestation with her grandmother. "I don't want her to look at me differently," she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

People in the audience also were moved to tears at the emotional testimony.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/307959,gonzalez.article