When criminals are not treated seriously, when they are given lenient plea bargain deals, and when they are let out of jail early, or never jailed at all, bad things can happen. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Gary Wilburn Elmore, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

Lexington man, previous offender accused of sexually assaulting a woman under his care

by Christopher Leach | Friday, July 15, 2022 | 8:24 AM EDT

A Lexington man who was previously convicted of a sexual assault crime has been charged with rape and and sexual abuse, according to court records.

Gary Elmore, 52, is accused of sexually assaulting a female while she was asleep. Elmore’s arrest citation said he was the victim’s care taker and the abuse happened daily while the victim was under his care for approximately one month.

The victim is a vulnerable adult and relied on Elmore for care and assistance for completion of nearly all daily living activities, according to court documents.

Elmore is listed on the Kentucky State Police sex offender registry for pleading guilty to third degree rape in 2010 in Jefferson County. Court records show the charge was amended down from first degree rape and he was sentenced to five years of supervised probation.

Elmore was also charged with failure to comply with the sex offender registry twice — later in 2010 and again in 2012, per court records. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to attempting to not comply with the registry. He pleaded guilty in 2012 to failing to comply.

At this point I would normally write that there’s more at the original, but there isn’t; Christopher Leach’s story is only those five paragraphs long.

Mr Elmore would seem to fall into the category of “was known to the police.” His record at the Fayette County Detention Center shows not just one, but five separate mugshots, dated September 15, 2015, December 5, 2021, December 25, 2021, June 16, 2022, and July 14, 2022. The first two mugshots are identical, so it is possible that the Merry Christmas mugshot was to replace the duplicate one used twenty days previously.

Under KRS §510.040, first degree rape is a Class B felony, the punishment for which is a minimum of ten years to a maximum of 20 years under KRS §532.060. Had the charge not been amended down, Mr Elmore could still have been behind bars when he (allegedly) raped his victim.

Under KRS §510.060, third degree rape is a Class D felony, punishable by 1 to 5 years in prison. While I certainly don’t like that Mr Elmore was allowed to plead down, this could very well have been to save the victim further trauma from having to testify in court, something I do understand.

However, he was given 5 years probation, with apparently no jail time at all, and twice tried to evade the sex offender registry, which should have resulted in him being sent to prison, but if he was, the story does not tell us.

A first offense of failure to comply with sex offender registry requirements is a Class D felony under KRS §17.510, the penalty for which is 1 to 5 years in prison, and each subsequent offense is a Class C felony, the sentence for which is a minimum of 5 years to a maximum of 10 years. The victim would not have to testify for this. While the first plea bargain could have been made to save the victim from having to testify, the attempt to evade the register would not have required her testimony; the case could have been made simply via paperwork. The Commonwealth could have locked up this cretin for up to five years on the first offense, which would have made up for him not being jailed previously due to the plea deal.

If he had been sentenced to just one year for that first offense, he would have been free in 2012, the date of his second registry offense, and could have gotten locked up for ten years.

This is a story of a lot of failures by people other than Mr Elmore. Who hired him to work as a caregiver for a mostly helpless woman, despite the fact he was a convicted felon and on the sex offender registry? Did someone check and know about this, and hire him anyway, or did someone simply fail to check the background of a person who was going to be sent into the hole of a disabled woman? In either case, the person who hired him needs to be held accountable.

It has to be asked: just who treated Mr Elmore so leniently in the criminal justice system, leniently enough that he was able to (allegedly) rape a 52-year-old woman who was disabled enough that she required a caregiver? Mr Elmore could have spent at least five years behind bars, though that would not have had him in jail when he (allegedly) raped his helpless victim, but at least the public would have been protected from him for that time. Whoever treated Mr Elmore leniently needs to be held accountable.

Both first degree rape and first degree sodomy (KRS §510.070) are Class B felonies, unless the victim receives a serious physical injury, which would upgrade the charge to a Class A felony, which carries a penalty of not less than 20 nor more than 50 years in prison, or a straight life sentence. The story does not tell us if the victim was injured.

If Mr Elmore is found guilty, he needs to spend the rest of his miserable life behind bars. If he is convicted of both first degree rape and sodomy, he should be sentenced to the maximum, with the sentences set to run consecutively, not concurrently.

The Herald-Leader is telling readers that the Commonwealth’s prisons are once again getting overfilled, but letting criminals out early is not the answer; the answer is to build more prisons to hold the bad guys behind bars for as long as the law allows. This might help deter some of the other bad guys, but it will definitely protect the people of the Bluegrass State.