Despite urgings from leaders of a local Amish community, Melvin Glick was jailed on Wednesday for having a three-year sexual relationship with a young girl.
Glick, 32, received a large show of support from his community after he was charged last year with sexually assaulting the girl about 100 times.
However, a local judge said, that support doesn't excuse the criminal acts.
"To treat you differently just because you are a member of the Amish community would disrespect that honorable community," County Judge David Ashworth told Glick.
Ashworth ordered Glick to 2 to 4 years in state prison, followed by 6 years on probation.
Glick also must register his whereabouts with state police for the rest of his life.
Glick's supporters had suggested extended counseling would suffice.
"I am tremendously impressed and pleased that your community has gathered around you in support," Ashworth said. "What I am concerned about is that we not lose sight of the fact that you had sexual contact with a child.
"That can't be ignored."
Glick, a married man with five children, admitted in May to having sexual contact with the girl, who lived nearby, between 2007 and 2010.
Michael Reed, Glick's attorney, suggested that his client and the victim were in love with one another. He said they often came in contact with one another and there were "sparks."
"How do you rule out love?" Reed asked a psychologist who determined Glick to be a sexually violent predator.
"There are sexual deviants who love 5-year-olds," Dr. Robert Stein said in response. "That's what pedophilia means."
Stein diagnosed Glick with that affliction. He testified that Glick would likely re-offend, based on the extended period of sexual behavior with the girl, that began when she was 13.
"He knew it was wrong all along," Stein said of Glick. "He told himself to stop. He could not."
Ashworth agreed with Stein's diagnosis and ordered the lifetime registration, which is mandatory for sexually violent predators.
About a dozen of Glick's relatives, including his wife, attended the sentencing.
Several of the supporters spoke on Glick's behalf, saying he has responded well to counseling.
He signed a conduct agreement with community leaders in order to stay in compliance with the faith, it was said in court.
"We all can appreciate what the community has done and said," Assistant District Attorney Karen Mansfield, "but they didn't commit these acts."
The victim, Mansfield said, is angry and wanted Glick to go to jail.
"She wishes she could have waited to experience sex with her (future) husband only," Mansfield said. Glick "took something from her that she'll never get back."
The victim was not in the courtroom – and for good reason, prosecutors said.
While Glick was immediately embraced following the charges, prosecutors said, the victim didn't receive a similar response.
"The victim has not received that same support, nor has her family," state police Trooper Linda Gerow said. Gerow filed the charges against Glick.
"The victim wasn't willing to forgive, forget and move on," Gerow told the judge.
In fact, Gerow said, members of Glick's support team were at the victim's home when Gerow went there last Spring to interview her.
"I had to ask them to leave," Gerow said.
The trooper said that months later about 25 people showed up at a preliminary hearing in support of Glick.
"Nobody was there from the community to support the victim or her family," Gerow said.
Ashworth agreed with prosecutors that the girl was traumatized by the inappropriate relationship.
"You can't take back what you have done," he told Glick. "That is something that little girl is going to have to live with."
Ashworth said he sentenced Glick on the low end of state guidelines, but told him his rehabilitative efforts should have come years ago.
"All these things you are doing now, you should have done them before you victimized this young lady," the judge said.
Ashworth received numerous letters on Glick's behalf, many including references to Scripture.
The judge, while handing down sentence, quoted a verse from the Book of Galatians.
"For what a man may sow - that also he shall reap," Glick was told.
