Man given 20 years in prison for sexual assault of two girls
One survivor says ‘there’s a hole in my heart and there always will be’
WAILUKU — Saying a man violated the trust of children he was supposed to protect, a judge Wednesday sentenced the defendant to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting two girls, including one who was victimized for years.
“You took advantage of your position as an adult, as their guardian, as their protector,” 2nd Circuit Judge Kirstin Hamman said to William Behrendt, 51, of Haiku. “You violated them for your own pleasure and your own gratification. And you did it right under the noses of all your family members, which does speak to the manipulation you were doing with your family.”
Behrendt had pleaded no contest to first-degree sexual assault and third-degree sexual assault.
Eighteen other charges were dismissed in exchange for his pleas, in what Deputy Prosecutor Karen Droscoski said was “one of the more egregious child sex assault cases.”
She said one girl was 9 years old when the sexual assaults started in June 2014.
Belongings in the third grader’s bedroom included stuffed animals and a Rebecca Bonbon blanket, Droscoski said.
“Now those items are in the evidence vault at the Maui Police Department,” she said. “They no longer represent an innocent childhood.”
His “grooming” of the girl started with Behrendt asking her to massage him before leading to him sexually touching her, then progressing to other sexual acts, Droscoski said.
She said the sexual assaults started when the child’s mother wasn’t home and continued “during the day when no one was home or at night when everyone was asleep.”
Behrendt continued forcing the child into sexual acts until she was 13, starting when the family lived in Wailuku and continuing when they moved Upcountry, Droscoski said.
The sexual assaults stopped in 2018 when the girl disclosed what happened to a school counselor, Droscoski said.
She said the girl “was robbed of her innocence.”
Another girl, also a relative, was 8 when she was sexually assaulted in 2017, Droscoski said. She said the girl’s father was dropping the child off at a relative’s house when she began crying and saying she didn’t want to go. The girl told her father that Behrendt had touched her private parts and forced her to sexually touch him, Droscoski said.
The girl was sexually assaulted once, “but in an 8-yearold’s life, one time is enough to create lifelong trauma,” Droscoski said.
She said both girls testified before a grand jury that indicted Behrendt.
Speaking in court Wednesday, one girl said, “It was and it still is a tough journey to get through all of this.”
She said she has panic attacks and has had nightmares and sleepless nights.
“You don’t know, but I wish you knew the scars you left,” she said. “I am constantly on edge, assuming the worst of every boy.
“You left me broken. There’s a hole in my heart and there always will be, thanks to you.”
Defense attorney John Parker said that, in reaching a plea agreement with the prosecution, Behrendt wanted to spare the victims from having to testify at a trial. “The man did not want to harm anyone today,” Parker said.
“I know I put a lot of people
through hurt, a lot of family through hurt,” Behrendt said in court.
While jailed at the Maui Community Correctional Center since February 2020, “I refound God,” he said.
“I wish I could go back and change a lot of things,” he said. “I can’t mend hearts. I just want to apologize again for all the hurt I’ve caused.”
Referring to Behrendt’s comments, Judge Hamman said, “You say you don’t know how to mend hearts. You certainly know how to break them because you’ve broken those two little girls’ hearts with your actions.”
“They shouldn’t have to continue to relive what you put them through,” she said.
While some people wrote letters to the court describing Behrendt as a loving person, “they don’t see the side of you those little girls saw,” Hamman said.
In a report prepared for his sentencing, Behrendt described a “mean man” who was with his mother and molested a family member, Hamman said. “You did the same thing to these girls,” she said to Behrendt. “You are the mean man in their life.”
Noting the girls “were brave enough to make statements,” Hamman said, “They may be victims of your criminal behavior, but they’re also survivors of your behavior. They did not deserve it.
“I want them to know that they can heal and they can thrive. They can overcome.
“What you did to them does not have to define them.”
Hamman followed a plea agreement between the defense and prosecution in sentencing Behrendt to 20- and five-year prison terms, to be served at the same time.
He was required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.