Prison time for touching girl, 7

Guilty plea results in 7½-year sentence

A District Court judge handed down a 6½-year sentence for a man convicted of inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl after luring her into his yard with a puppy.

Chad Deignan, 23, pleaded guilty in January to criminal sexual contact of a minor and tampering with evidence and under the terms of his plea agreement, he faced a sentence of between 3 and 7½ years.

In a hearing Monday before Judge Briana Zamora, he apologized to the child and to her family.

“I know I have put you guys through a lot of stuff and it wasn’t good,” he said. “I wasn’t able to have a supportive family in my young life and I do very sincerely apologize.”

His attorney, Jason Wheeless, argued that credit for time served and probation would be the most appropriate sentence. He said his client, who was 19 at the time of the incident, has spent about 40 months in custody on the charge.

Wheeless said his client lost his mother at a young age and went on to live with his abusive father, leaving him with post-traumatic stress disorder. He called his client a “damaged kid” who “at his core” wanted a better life and wanted to gather the skills necessary to build that life. He said that Deignan needed counseling and supervision.

“A 7½-year sentence on charges like this,” Wheeless said, “is going to produce a person that we don’t particularly want in society.”

Alternately, prosecutor Brittany Duchaussee argued for the maximum sentence.

Duchaussee said Deignan asked the girl and her 8-year-old friend if they wanted to see his dog and the two followed him into his backyard where Deignan forced the 7-year-old to sit on his lap before inappropriately touching her over her clothes.

“This incident caused them to feel unsafe in their home,” Duchaussee said. “They felt fear, they felt anxiety, not to mention the trauma that being touched inappropriately causes on a person, a girl, so young.”

Following the completion of his sentence, Zamora ruled, Deignan must spend between five and 20 years on probation, and he will be required to register as a sex offender for the entirety of his life.