Kevin Murphy, Leader Correspondent
A Suring man was recently sentenced in federal court to nearly 22 years in prison for sexually abusing a then 8-year-old girl last summer.
Norman W. Corn Jr., 47, was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge William Griesbach to be followed by lifetime supervised release. Corn has been in custody since being indicted late last year. He pleaded guilty in April to two counts of sexual abusing a person incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct.
The case was “one of the more serious cases we’ve had in the Eastern District of Wisconsin,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Whittemore said.
The abuse took place from the time Corn moved in the girl’s residence on the Menominee Reservation in January 2013 and ended when she was removed from her home in August, according to Whittemore.
Whittemore said the age of the victim, the repeated acts of abuse and Corn being the girl’s primary care provider at times were reasons Griesbach sentenced Corn at the top of the 210- to 262-month advisory guideline range.
According to the plea agreement filed in court:
The girl had turned 9 years old when she reported the crime in August to Menominee Tribal Police. The girl said the abuse occurred in June when she was in the bathtub and again days later on the bedroom floor.
Corn told police that the abuse occurred when he had been drinking vodka and smoking marijuana.
The government alleged the abusive incidents occurred repeatedly, but the victim’s age made it difficult for her to separate them, Whittemore said.
“It is important for the court to also consider that the victim described numerous examples of what can only be described as grooming the child for this type of sexual behavior,” Whittemore wrote in a memo to the court. “The victim described how Corn would offer her alcoholic beverages and that he also began giving her treats after the shower incident when she was going to call for help.
“The victim indicated that Corn would watch sexually explicit movies with her as well.”
At the July 1 sentencing, Corn’s attorney Richard Brown recommended a five-year sentence, according to Whittemore.
Attempts to contact Brown were unsuccessful.
Corn was initially indicted with offenses punishable by life in prison. To avoid the girl having to testify, negotiations resulted in Corn pleading to crimes that carried penalties that matched the sentence he received, Whittemore said.
The girl continues to face consequences a year after the sexual contact, Whittemore wrote.
She has lost her friends, contact with much of her extended family, has had to switch schools, her grades have dropped, she distrusts men and might have to enter foster care as a result of Corn’s conduct, Whittemore wrote.
Whittemore sought a substantial sentence for Corn to provide general deterrence to the Menominee community, where sex assault cases, he said, have increased dramatically during the past year.