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RANDOLPH, Rich County — Under strong words from a judge and years of pain from his former student, a retired Rich High School teacher has been sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting the woman 22 years ago.
Michael Layne Williamson, 60, spoke of shame, pain and forgiveness as he appeared before 1st District Judge Thomas Willmore for sentencing on July 27. The former teacher pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, one second-degree felony, while the other was reduced to a third-degree felony.
No details of the case were released when Williamson was originally charged in November, and requests by the Deseret News to the Rich County sheriff's and attorney's offices for police documents were denied. Inquiries about appealing the denial were ignored.
In an audio recording of Williamson's sentencing hearing, the judge — unmoved by Williamson's apologies and scolding him for calling his actions a mistake — sentenced the former teacher to one to 15 years, with an additional term of up to five years to run concurrently. While in prison he must complete a sex offender course.
A pre-sentence report had recommended 210 days in jail for Williamson, his attorneys explained, asking that he be able to serve his time in home confinement as he battles stage 4 prostate cancer. Prosecutors did not ask for a specific punishment for Williamson, saying they left the decision to the judge's discretion.
Willmore scoffed at the short recommended sentence, which he attributed to the Justice Reinvestment Initiative and efforts to reduce prison populations. He based his sentence on the girl's young age, the position of trust that Williamson held, and the way he disgraced the "noble profession" of a teacher.
Reading from an apology letter describing the remorse and shame that he, too, has lived with, Williamson said in the hearing, "This indiscretion of mine was of the most heinous type."
Willmore interrupted at that moment.
"Let me stop you right there. It is not an indiscretion. You broke the law. And I heard from many of these letters from your family that it was a mistake," the judge said.
"A mistake means unintended consequences or a lapse of judgement," he continued, pounding his hand for emphasis. "That's far beyond a lack of judgment and indiscretion. You and your family tried to sweep this under the rug, tried to downplay this."
In an emotional testimony, the woman, now 35, showed the judge a picture of herself in eighth grade to reinforce that it wasn't an adult who was victimized, it was a child.
"You pushed forward little by little until I was so deep in that there was no way out. You were my teacher, my friend's dad, an adult, all of those people I was taught to respect and to listen to and to trust," the woman said. "You used all of it to satisfy your own perverted desires. You made sure I knew how much I would ruin everyone's life and everything around me if I ever told anyone. You made sure I knew how much you stood to lose if anyone ever found out.
"You put it all on my shoulders, those of a 13-year-old, to carry. I always blamed myself."
The woman, who the Deseret News has chosen not to name, explained that she kept her silence about what happened between her and her teacher, eventually leaving the state. On a recent trip back to Utah, however, the pain came rushing back, and she said she made a choice: Report the abuse to law enforcement or take her own life.
"Since breaking my silence I have attempted to begin processing everything I have pushed aside for two decades," she said, describing the blame, anger, hurt and embarrassment she long believed was of her own making. "I am 35 years old and I am now just starting to understand those things are a reflection of you and not me."
Among the greatest challenges since coming forward, the woman said, has been battling the panic she now feels seeing her own children go to school or activities knowing that she, at their age, was not safe.
"With my knowledge of the evil that is out there, I feel helpless in protecting them when I couldn't even protect myself," she said. "So many times I have broken down crying when I am talking to my kids about boundaries and how to keep their bodies safe, telling them that no matter what anyone else tells them it is not their fault."
In his statement, Williamson apologized to the court, the community, his church and the school district. He called on the woman and her family to do what he called one of the hardest things they may ever face: forgive him.
"I am so sorry for the pain and anguish I have caused you," he said, calling the woman by name. "I sincerely apologize for every out-of-line thought, action and deed which I committed. I truly wished you no harm and had no intention of hurting you so severely. I was reckless with our student-teacher relationship and ignored the values and principles that I truly believe in and cherish."
In several moments, Williamson spoke of his faith in God and his belief that forgiveness is possible.
"The future is ahead and the past is in the past," Williamson concluded. "My hope and prayer is that through these proceedings we can all find closure and live courageously into life ahead. Our lives and our families have been irreversibly changed by my actions of 20 years ago. My earnest prayer is that all of us can move forward from this spot and create our own personal future full of love, forgiveness and healing."
