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Judge sentences Durango man to prison for sexual-assault case

Gallegos gets maximum under plea deal
Jeffrey Gallegos listens to attorneys discussing his case in Judge William Herringer’s courtroom during sentencing on Thursday afternoon at the La Plata County Courthouse. Gallegos was convicted of kidnapping and attempted sexual assault.

District Court Judge William Herringer sentenced Jeffrey Gallegos on Thursday to six years in prison for kidnapping and five years’ probation for attempted sexual assault, to be served consecutively.

The six-year prison sentence was the maximum allowed under the plea agreement that Gallegos reached with the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s office.

Almost two years ago, in April 2013, police arrested Gallegos for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman at the American Legion bar in Durango, where he worked as a bartender.

Joseph Toledo – an accomplice to the sexual assault who placed tape over the American Legion’s video camera lens – was sentenced in August 2014 to 18 months probation after pleading guilty to tampering with evidence.

At the packed sentencing hearing, the victim said she was now 24 years old.

“The morning that I left the Legion, I went straight to the hospital, and I spent the rest of the day in the ER,” completing a rape kit, undergoing police interviews and racking up “several thousands of dollars for medical bills I’m still trying to pay for.”

“I also walked away with a little less dignity. Telling my story was humiliating. Being poked and prodded was degrading,” the victim said.

She said in the months since the sexual assault, she has dropped out of college six credits short of graduating, moved back to her parents’ residence, battled with depression, insomnia, paranoia and anxiety, and struggled daily to regain control of her life.

“I can’t let this define my life going forward,” she said. “I hope that one day he will feel remorse for what he’s done, and today, to eliminate the possibility of Mr. Gallegos putting any more women through what I have gone through.”

The victim’s mother also addressed the judge, saying, “As a parent, being unable to shield your child from this kind of pain is almost unbearable.”

She said she supported her daughter’s decision to press charges throughout the last 21 months.

“My daughter chose to hold him accountable. I ask this court to hold him accountable, too – by imposing maximum allowable sentence.”

Since Gallegos pleaded guilty in September, two more women went to police to report that Gallegos sexually assaulted them, too. One of them, Susan Leventhal, spoke at the sentencing Thursday. Assistant District Attorney Christian Champagne said the other woman was in the courtroom as a show of support.

Champagne said sexual assault is “one of the most insidious crimes that we have. It injures the soul. But they are survivors not victims, and they are stronger than their perpetrators.”

Leventhal told the judge it had taken years for her to recognize that she was Gallegos’ victim.

“It’s hard to comprehend that if I had come forward sooner there might not have been other victims,” she said.

When it was his turn to speak, Gallegos read a statement aloud to the court.

“I want to apologize to the victim for the hurt, the harm and the grief I’ve caused you and your family. ... I take full responsibility for my actions.

“Being the father of a daughter, I can only imagine the pain you and your family have gone through,” he said.

Gallegos’s public defender John Moran urged Herringer to forgo prison time, saying Gallegos could be treated through Sex Offender Intensive Supervised Probation in the community.

“Mr. Gallegos is someone who can succeed outside of a prison cell,” he said. He said Gallegos was a loving father to his daughter, a hero to his nephew, and his family could be counted on to help Gallegos meet the onerous requirements of the supervised probation, a sentence he characterized as more difficult than prison.

Moran dismissed “the notion that incarceration is what the public wants to see – that it’s an effective way to protect the public. Social science shows that that’s not the case.”

He said in Colorado, a teacher’s starting salary is $32,000 a year, whereas the state spends $34,956 a year on every prisoner.

Moran said there was a big “difference between Mr. Gallegos paying $1,500 a year to be treated in the community versus the $35,000 a year we would be paying to keep him in a cage – only for him to come out a few years later no better to the community.”

Herringer agreed that prison does nothing to rehabilitate offenders. But, he added, given the seriousness of the offense and his determination that Gallegos risked relapsing into criminal conduct, “in this case, it’s really the only tool that I have that is appropriate,” he said.

At one point, Herringer referred to video-surveillance footage taken of the assault, which showed the victim attempting to flee Gallegos in the American Legion, “having her hands over her face, and Mr. Gallegos coming back and getting her. That doesn’t look like someone who was just drunk. It looks like someone being traumatized.”

cmcallister@durangoherald.com



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