November 18, 2021 at 1:56 p.m.
Local woman sentenced in child sexual assault case
Local woman sentenced in child sexual assault case
Stacy Mae Melby appeared before Oneida County circuit judge Michael Bloom on Nov. 11 for what had been scheduled as a pre-trial conference.
According to a criminal complaint filed May 7, Rhinelander police received a report that Melby was "giving juveniles drugs and alcohol and allowing them to have sexual contact in her home" which doubled as a daycare center.
The complaint also alleged that three juveniles, two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old, told police they had consumed alcohol and vaped tobacco with Melby. One of the juveniles also reported having sexual contact with Melby.
In an interview with police, Melby denied "selling" marijuana to any juveniles, but confirmed that juveniles would smoke "carts" (an electronic vaping or smoking device that contains THC or marijuana) when in her home. Initially, she denied having sexual contact with the juveniles before admitting to having intercourse with one individual "once or twice."
Melby waived her preliminary hearing June 2, and entered not guilty pleas at her June 21 arraignment. In October, defense attorney Gary Cirilli told Bloom that he had received a resolution offer from assistant district attorney Mary Sowinski and was reviewing it with his client.
At the November 11 pretrial conference, Sowinski outlined the plea agreement.
In exchange for a guilty or no contest plea to the misdemeanor charge of intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child and to one Class F and one Class H felony charge of causing a child to view or listen to sexual activity, the rest of the charges would be dismissed but read in for purposes of sentencing, the prosecutor explained.
In addition, Sowinski said she would ask that Bloom delay entry of judgement on the Class H felony for five years and place Melby on probation for that period.
Melby entered no contest pleas to the three charges and Bloom found her guilty on the first two counts.
In her sentencing statement, Sowinski noted that it was important that Melby take full responsibility for her actions.
"This has been a difficult case to make a recommendation on. I know the victims' parents are frustrated in many ways," Sowinsky said. "I know there are conflicting factors that I have gone through in my head in making the recommendation that I made."
She said the resolution forces Melby to acknowledge that her actions were not a one-time occurrence, but also recognizes that she has an otherwise clean criminal history..
Sowinski also told Bloom she believed it was important to protect the victims and not go easy on Melby because of her gender.
"The DEJ will ensure she has absolutely no contact with minors, and with these victims in particular, for the next five years," she said.
She acknowledged that Melby was fully cooperative with investigators early in the case, but was adamant that she serve 9 months conditional jail time due to "the crimes that I can prove she committed" based on the admissions she made to police.
Cirilli said that while he agreed with a lot of what the prosecutor said in her sentencing argument, he didn't believe a nine-month jail sentence is necessary.
"You wonder, how did this go sideways like this?" Cirilli said, adding that his client was subject to verbal and physical abuse from a parental figure for most of her juvenile life, and had recently been diagnosed with PTSD and other mental health problems. While this does not excuse her behavior, it does offer some mitigation, he noted.
Cirilli said Melby saw the core juveniles involved as her "security blanket," the only people she felt comfortable around and could confide in.
Given her chance to speak, Melby apologized to Bloom for her actions.
Bloom said that one of the things he has to consider when coming to a sentencing decision is the gravity of the offense.
"The nature of the conduct that was going on between the defendant and the victims was factually - although not legally - consensual that when looking at the situation are mitigating, to some extent," Bloom said.
In trying to find a way to make her own pain go away by engaging in the illicit actions with the victims, she just transferred her pain to others, the judge noted.
"I don't necessarily dispute Mr. Cirilli's version that you drew some comfort from the presence of these individuals," Bloom said. "But it was ultimately a false sense of security."
Bloom said he also needed to consider the character of the offender and the need to protect the public. He said what Melby allowed to transpire between the youngsters and herself "suggests that there is some flaw in Melby's character." He said that the letters of support for the defendant from parents showed there are also good aspects to her character.
Another aspect of the case Bloom pointed out is that Melby has lost her license to operate a day care, or work in such an environment because of the conviction.
"That is the only one, fool-proof way to prevent something like this happening again," Bloom said of the license revocation action.
On the felony charge, Bloom withheld sentence and placed Melby on probation for five years, while on the misdemeanor charge he withheld sentence and placed Melby on probation for one year, with nine months jail to start on or before Nov. 26. He also went along with the terms of the DEJ proposed by both sides. All sentences are to be served consecutively.
In addition, Melby must register as a sex offender for 15 years after completing probation.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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