October 13, 2022 at 2:36 p.m.
Mullen sentenced to 15 years in prison for child sexual assaults committed over three decades
Mullen sentenced to 15 years in prison for child sexual assaults committed over three decades
Oneida County circuit judge Mike Bloom handed down the sentence, which also includes 10 years of extended supervision and lifetime registration as a sex offender, on Tuesday afternoon, 25 days after Mullen, 57, resolved all of the charges against him by entering a no contest plea to one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child.
He had been scheduled to stand trial this month.
Pursuant to a plea agreement, several other child sexual assault charges were amended to "causing mental harm to a child" and then dismissed. Despite the dismissal, the counts were read in for purposes of sentencing, meaning the court considered Mullen's conduct against all seven victims when pronouncing sentence.
Assistant Oneida County district attorney Mary Sowinski asked the court to sentence Mullen to 10 to 15 years confinement to be followed by 10 to 15 years on extended supervision through the Department of Corrections.
"It's the state's fervent belief that he should be, if not in custody, certainly supervised, for the vast majority of the remainder of his life..." she said.
She also recommended that the court craft a sentence long enough so that all of the victims reach adulthood before Mullen is released. Such a sentence would be "the most appropriate way to protect the victims who are still children so they can try to address the trauma that they have been subjected to and be able to have some childhood where they don't have to worry about running into Mr. Mullen in the community that they live in," she said.
Sowinski acknowledged that some of the victims were frustrated with the way the case was resolved.
"It's certainly the state's hope that the fact that all of the victims had counts read in so that the court can consider each and every victim's experience and the facts of their individual criminal complaints in sentencing Mr. Mullen is of some comfort to them," the prosecutor said. "But, if nothing else, the fact that they don't have to testify and that Mr. Mullen will be going to be prison and is taking responsibility and has said out loud to this court and the public that he is guilty of sexually assaulting a child will be of comfort to them."
Defense attorney Michael Covey acknowledged Mullen's behavior was a violation of the social contract which requires adults to protect children.
"Jeffery did not protect the children. In fact, he did quite the opposite and that harm is going to last far beyond anything that we talk about today," he said.
Covey went on to argue that in cases such as this "there's an instinct to yell predator, call somebody a monster and just throw away the key. Ultimately that decision is going to be up to you, judge, but I would argue that that instinct, though natural, is often wrong and we can sometimes give ourselves a false sense of protection while really doing something that's unjust."
Later, he argued that the sentiment that every sex offender is automatically predisposed to reoffend after release from custody is actually a "myth".
"Statistically speaking, that is absolutely not true," he said, noting that studies have shown older sex offenders are less likely to reoffend after release.
Covey asked for a sentence of 10 years in prison to be followed by 10 years extended supervision.
"I think any additional time you put him in custody, or if you were to follow the recommendation of the state and have him on extended supervision until his late 80s, that might make some people feel good but it won't really give us any extra protection," Covey said. "Most offenders reoffend two years after they're released from prison, if they are going to reoffend at all. After that, again for someone whose going to be that age, it's just very unlikely when you look at the vast majorities of studies of other sex offenders..."
When asked if he would like to address the court prior to sentencing, Mullen shook his head and whispered no.
Before pronouncing sentence, Bloom stated that Mullen was guilty of "grave and serious conduct committed over a lengthy period of time against multiple individuals." He also noted that the victim impact statements submitted to him were helpful in illustrating the magnitude of the damage Mullen inflicted on innocent children.
"These offenses have had and will continue to have lasting impacts on those victimized by the defendant," he said.
The first case, charging Mullen with first-degree child sex assault (sexual contact with person under age of 13), was filed on July 10, 2020 in connection with an incident in his former residence in Harshaw in May of 2020.
A second case, also charging first-degree sexual assault of a child under 13, was filed on July 16, 2020. A third case followed on Aug. 6, 2020. The assaults described in the second and third filings were alleged to have taken place in 1990. The alleged victims in the second and third filings came forward after learning that Mullen had been accused of assaulting the child referred to in the first filing.
In a fourth case, a woman reported her child began exhibiting behavioral changes after spending time in Mullen's home. The behavior caused the mother to become concerned that something was wrong with the child or that something had happened to the child, the complaint in that case states.
Eventually, the child disclosed that, during a visit to his home, Mullen had rubbed the child's belly and he "went the wrong way," the complaint states.
A fifth case was filed March 31, 2021 alleging that Mullen sexually assaulted a child between April 1, 1995 and April 1, 1997 when she was between the ages of 4 and 5 years old. The woman came forward to Oneida County sheriff's detectives in February 2021.
The most recent case, filed on Aug. 11, 2021, charged Mullen with three counts of first-degree child sexual assault in connection with incidents alleged to have occurred between Nov. 1, 2019 and May 20, 2020 in the Harshaw residence.
As Mullen has been custody for the majority of the time the various cases have been pending, Covey indicated the state and defense need time to determine the amount of sentence credit he is owed.
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