MAN SENTENCE TO FIVE YEARS PROBATION OVER SEX CRIMES VIDEOS INVOLVING “BARELY CONSCIOUS” WOMAN
February 15, 2020
Kaelan Deese
The Hill
A New Jersey man has been sentenced to five years of probation after he pleaded guilty to posting video clips on Snapchat of him touching a "barely conscious" woman's genitals in her dorm.
The woman told a courtroom on Thursday that Zachary Madle raped her in 2017 when she was blacked out in her dorm at Stockton University, where she was an 18-year-old freshman, NJ.com reported.
The woman said that she found out the videos had been posted after she woke up.
A police affidavit of probable cause said that Madle was seen in one video molesting the woman, described as "barely conscious," while she was in underwear and another showed her naked lying on the floor.
The woman told the court this week that the encounter on Feb. 15, 2017, left her depressed and humiliated. She said she started driving home every weekend as a student because she was afraid to be on campus.
"I wanted to die," she said of driving home each week. "I prayed to God to die, hoping maybe a deer would jump out in front of my car so I could swerve and hit a tree, or maybe a drunk driver would hit my car, and I would die or least be so messed up that I wouldn't remember Zach or what he did to me."
The defendant pleaded guilty last month to fourth-degree criminal sexual contact and invasion of privacy for posting the videos online without permission, according to NJ.com.
The judge in the case said that since the most severe crime Madle was indicted on was aggravated criminal sexual contact, and he had no prior criminal history, he faced a presumption of probation even if a jury convicted him during a trial, NJ.com reported.
Madle spoke in court, saying he wanted to "convey my apologies." His attorney said Madle was ashamed of his actions and will "never forgive himself" for the harm he caused.
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/483239-man-sentenced-to-five-years-probation-over-sex-crimes-videos-involving-barely
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