Having previously plead guilty to two counts of Sexual Misconduct with a Minor as a Class B Felony and Incest as a Class B Felony, 39-year-old Ken Singleton appeared before Judge Kim Hall in the Starke Circuit Court on Thursday to be sentenced. The victim of the sexual abuse was not present to make a statement but a victim impact letter she had written was read aloud in court.
Singleton was sentenced to 20 years in the Department of Corrections for each of the charges to which he pled guilty, with five years suspended to be served on probation. The sentences will run concurrently. Singleton is also required to register as a sex offender, complete a sex offender treatment program, and is prohibited from accessing the internet. He will also be required to consent to regular searches of any personal computers he may have, and will undergo regular polygraph testing, at his own expense, to ensure compliance with rules and regulations of sex offenders.
As part of the agreement, the other charges against Singleton were dismissed, including three counts of Incest as a Class C Felony, two counts of Incest as a Class B Felony, and one count of Child Molesting as a Class A Felony. Singleton was credited with 308 days served in jail.
The victim had no objection to the plea agreement and would have preferred not to appear at a trial. In her victim impact letter, she said that her “entire sense of what is right and what is wrong is completely warped and backwards,” and described herself as “damaged goods,” saying she is “ruined.”
“What are you supposed to do when the one person that supposed to protect you goes way too far?” she asked.
