Forty years on, a Wisconsin man sees justice rendered on the teacher who molested him. Richard Hinde was 13 years old and living in Iowa when he was first molested by Dale Soppe. Soppe molested him again after the Hinde family moved to Wisconsin. Tuesday, Hinde was in a Barron County courtroom to hear Soppe's apology. Hinde said Soppe acknowledged being "very sorry, and that yes, he did abuse me. He is responsible for the hurt that I've felt."
Hinde says the sentencing is huge relief, even though some might feel Soppe's sentence, six months in jail and two years probation, is not much punishment. "It is forty years later. The man is 72 years old," said Hinde.
Charges against Soppe were allowed in Wisconsin because he left the state after the assault, which stopped the clock on the statute of limitations. Soppe, who claimed to have been molested as a child, went on to become a counselor and wrote two books, accomplishments Hinde says will now have "an asterisk" after them.
Also in Barron County Court on Tuesday, a former pastor at a Rice Lake church was sentenced to an 18-month term after pleading guilty to four counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. Once he is released, 56 year-old Angel R. Toro will be on three years of probation. Toro's victim, Doug Guillen, told police Toro sexually assaulted him in summer or fall of 1987 when Guillen was 17.