Rapist gets 11 years for sex with teen

PALMER — A 37-year-old former medic and firefighter has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for twice having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

At his sentencing hearing Monday, Brett Talmadge said he didn’t believe his trial was handled fairly. He felt inconsistent statements from witnesses amounted to perjury and that enough of his crime and the discovery of it happened outside of the state to place his case outside the court’s jurisdiction.

He said the 14-year sentence prosecutors were seeking was extreme and would serve only to make him angry, rather than do anything to rehabilitate him.

“I made a mistake,” he said. “I regret that mistake. But I do not feel like for making a mistake once in your life a person should be sentenced for 14 years.”

The first half of the hearing was taken up with arguments about whether Talmadge would take over the case and represent himself. He said he wanted to do that and to also have some extra time to study the law.

But Superior Court Judge Vanessa White said she saw no reason to give Talmadge another 60 days to prepare his case. He’d had enough time already, the judge said. Although he didn’t file to represent himself until Friday, White said she hadn’t heard any compelling reasons why he had to wait so long to make that request.

So Talmadge dropped his request. His attorney, Sam Westergren, despite what both he and Talmadge agreed were considerable differences between them, handled the sentencing hearing.

In asking for the 14-year sentence, Assistant District Attorney Rachel Gernat said she felt Talmadge had betrayed a significant trust by his actions. The girl’s parents were close friends of Talmadge. The girl was allowed to come to his house alone on a regular basis.

“He turned that relationship into almost more of a girlfriend,” Gernat said. “He really treated her like an adult, both socially and, also, obviously, sexually.”

She also spoke about Talmadge giving the girl alcohol and about his actions when the girl tried to break off the relationship during a rendezvous they had in a travel trailer.

“He brings her in there and then he threatens to call her father,” Gernat said. “Her thought is, ‘I don’t want my dad to be mad at me for drinking,’” a reaction, Gernat said, clearly showed how childlike her thinking was.

Westergren requested a six-year sentence. He said Gernat’s request was excessive and more akin to what would be imposed on someone convicted of raping elementary school children rather than teenagers.

“I’ve been before the court when there’s been much younger victims where a comparable sentence was requested,” Westergren said.

White chose to go with a sentence of 11 years to serve with 12 additional years that could be imposed if Talmadge repeats his offences.

“Mr. Talmadge has a very strong sense of entitlement,” the judge said. “His prospects for rehabilitation are impaired by his focus on himself rather than his victim.”

As for the perjury and jurisdiction issues, White said she understood why Talmadge wanted to bring them up but said they were all things more properly raised on appeal than at a sentencing hearing.

She said she hoped a significant amount of time behind bars would help Talmadge change his thinking, especially on one specific item.

“It’s that one statement that 14 years is just going to make him angry that really troubles this court,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.