Michael Heroff

CANYON CITY – Angered by the “suicide gesture” of defendant Michael W. Heroff, Judge W.D. Cramer Jr. ordered the former Granite man to spent more than 14 years in prison for sodomizing a 9-year-old girl he had befriended.

The judge outlined the sentence Friday, Sept. 21, in Grant County Circuit Court, noting that only Heroff’s apology to the court kept him from receiving an even longer prison term.

The jury on Sept. 14 found Heroff guilty of three counts of first-degree sodomy, one count of first degree sex abuse and one count of public indecency, in the case, only to watch moments later as the man downed a handful of what later was identified as rat poison. Heroff was hustled from the courtroom by police, taken to Blue Mountain Hospital and treated to remove the poison from his system.

In a brief statement at the sentencing, Heroff told the judge that “I was under unbearable stress to my family.”

He apologized to the court, the hospital staff and the guards who were posted to watch over him through the weekend before he was taken to the jail.

Heroff was accused of abusing the 9-year-old girl in 2005 in a restaurant and store where he worked and in the woods nearby. The girl later moved with her family to Idaho and told relatives and then a school counselor, a mandatory reporter, about the abuse.

Heroff had since moved to Lincoln County, where he was arrested last spring.

Each of the three sodomy convictions drew a 100-month sentence, but because some of that time will be served concurrently, the actual prison time adds up to 170 months.

On the first count, Cramer sentenced Heroff to 100 months with credit for time served, and a $7,500 fine to go toward counseling for the victim.

On the second sodomy count, the sentence was 100 months, with 70 months of that time to be served consecutively. The third count brought 100 months to be served concurrently.

The judge merged a separate count of sex abuse with the sodomy count, and sentenced Heroff to six months, concurrent to the other terms, on the public indecency charge,

Defense attorney Markku A. Sario had asked the court to merge some counts and to consider concurrent, rather than consecutive terms in prison. He also said the sodomy acts, while criminal, would rank “at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of severity” because of the lack of force or assault.

Sario said consecutive sentences at the maximum could be “a life sentence” for Heroff, now 55, and he contended that “in so many respects, Mr. Heroff is a good man.”

Sario said that Heroff, was working as a security guard, was a Vietnam veteran and a victim of Agent Orange poisoning. He also noted that there is no sex offender treatment in prison.

“I don’t know that it serves any purpose to send Mr. Heroff to prison for the rest of his life,” he said. “It’s vengeance, plain and simple, and I would ask the court not to do that.”

District Attorney Ryan Joslin asked for the full sentence provided by Measure 11 for first-degree sodomy, and asked that the sentences be served consecutively because the sodomy acts were separate and distinct acts. He also noted that the abuse continued over most of a year.

Joslin read a letter from the victim’s mother, who wrote that she had seen pain on both sides in the emotional case. She described her daughter as the most innocent victim of all, noting that the 9-year-old had been criticized, called a liar and slandered “for coming forth with the truth.”

Through it all, the child was concerned mostly for Heroff, whom she considered a friend, the mother and Joslin both said.

Joslin said the girl, now 11, has been crying herself to sleep each night, feeling sorry for Heroff and not realizing how wrong his actions were.

Cramer said he had anticipated that the state would seek the most severe penalty allowed by the statutes. However, he noted that he would draw a distinction between a case like this and an offender who has multiple victims, prior convictions or more violent actions.

He also noted concern for the victim, saying that it usually is helpful for a victim to know that the offender is getting treatment. He said it is unfortunate that there is no treatment option in prison, and said that sooner or later society will need to address that lack as an important issue for the victims of abuse.

“It was clear the this young girl liked Mr. Heroff,” he said. “She is going to be traumatized to a certain extent just by the sentence that the court is going to impose.”

Cramer said that after the suicide incident in court, “I was angry about it.”

“I had jurors who were throwing up in the bathroom,” the judge said. “I know that it traumatized (the girl) and her mother.”

Cramer said that “self-centered and narcissistic” act made him consider a longer term – 180 months – than the 120 months he had originally thought might apply in this case.

“The fact that you apologized saved yourself about a year of mandatory prison time,” Cramer told Heroff.

Cramer commented on the division in the community of Granite regarding the case, and said he hoped the resolution would allow the community to “move on.”

He also said he doesn’t usually discuss the evidence at the close of a case, but he made an exception in the Heroff case. He said he didn’t see reasonable doubt after hearing all the evidence. He said that when a 9-year-old can predict that an individual’s semen will be found on a specific chair, and the DNA evidence shows a strong link to the defendent, it’s a strong case.

“I felt that anyone who’s not emotionally attached to you would have no problem seeing the evidence for what it was,” he said.

In addition to the prison time, the judge required that Heroff register as a sex offender on release from prison and undergo post-prison supervision for 20 years. The judge also said that if sex offender treatment becomes available in prison during Heroff’s incarceration, he should be enrolled.