Gehrkens Pleads Guilty To Sex Charge

By Andrew Gorosko

WATERBURY — A Middlebury woman pleaded guilty this week to second-degree sexual assault stemming from her illegal yearlong sexual relationship with an underage male Newtown High School (NHS) student while the woman formerly worked as a NHS guidance intern.

The conviction will result in the woman serving a nine-month sentence in state prison. 

Jillian Gehrkens, 28, of 807 Long Meadow Road, Middlebury, also pleaded guilty in Waterbury Superior Court on January 8 to violation of the conditions of release, stemming from her contact with the unidentified victim following her August 2005 arrest, after having been ordered by a judge to have no such contact.

Wearing a black pantsuit, a calm and composed Ms Gehrkens entered the two guilty pleas before Judge Joan K. Alexander in Courtroom 2-B, as part of a plea agreement which Ms Gehrkens had reached with state prosecutors. Attorney William F. Dow, III, of New Haven represents Ms Gehrkens.

Ms Gehrkens told the judge that she agrees with the facts of the criminal prosecution as presented by the state.

Ms Gehrkens’ husband and her parents attended court, as did the parents of the victim.

In August 2005, Middlebury police charged Ms Gehrkens with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of risk of injury or impairing the morals of a minor. In September 2005, Newtown police charged her with violation of the conditions of release.

State law lists eight situations that constitute second-degree sexual assault. Ms Gehrkens pleaded guilty to the offense as it applies to school employees and students. In that situation, the offender is a school employee and the victim is a student where the offender works. The boy was 15 when the sexual relationship began.

Ms Gehrkens had worked as a NHS guidance office intern from January 2004 to January 2005. While an NHS intern, she was affiliated with Western Connecticut State University in Danbury as a graduate student.

In August 2005, Middlebury police arrested Ms Gehrkens because the illegal sexual activity between her and the victim occurred at her Middlebury residence. Newtown police had provided investigatory evidence to Middlebury police for their case. Police have not disclosed the identity of the victim.

Ms Gehrkens is free on $25,000 bail and is under limited house arrest, pending her sentencing on the two convictions. Ms Gehrkens is under electronic monitoring by court officials.

As part of the plea agreement, Ms Gehrkens will serve nine months incarceration, probably at York Correctional Institution, a state prison in Niantic for female offenders that houses more than 1,350 inmates. Nine months is the mandatory minimum sentence for a conviction on a charge of second-degree sexual assault, which is a felony. The maximum penalty for the crime is ten years imprisonment.

In November, the state had recommended that Ms Gehrkens serve four years in prison, but the final plea agreement placed that term at nine months.

Ms Gehrkens will receive a seven-year prison sentence, which would be suspended after she serves the mandatory nine months of incarceration for the sexual assault conviction. Following her imprisonment, she would be placed on ten years of probation, when she would be under the supervision of a probation officer. Ms Gehrkens also would receive counseling for sex offenders. She would be placed on the state’s sexual offender registry on the Internet for ten years. Failure to follow sex offender registry requirements can result in a sentence of up to five years in prison.

During her ten-year probation, Ms Gehrkens must have no contact with the victim or his family.

A DNA blood sample would be taken from Ms Gehrkens to serve as a reference substance for state investigations into sex crimes. HIV testing also would be done.

If she violates the conditions of her probation, she would be subject to serving the balance of her seven-year prison term.

The state will perform a presentencing investigation on Ms Gehrkens, which will include a sexual offender psychological evaluation, Judge Alexander said.

Ms Gehrkens is next scheduled to appear in court on March 12, when she will be sentenced under the terms of the plea agreement, if all the presentencing investigatory work is complete. If it is not complete, the sentencing will be postponed to a later date.

Judge Alexander told Ms Gehrkens that if she does not appear in court on March 12, she could face up to 11 years in prison, which represents the combined penalties for convictions on the two charges to which she has pleaded guilty.

Assistant State’s Attorney John Davenport told Judge Alexander that he had spoken extensively with the victim’s parents and they do not object to the terms of the plea agreement. The victim’s parents did not speak in open court. Plea negotiations in the case had been underway for months.

Mr Davenport has said that the state will pursue such sexual assault cases, in which a female is the offender and a male is the victim, as aggressively as it pursues cases in which a male is the offender and a female is the victim.

Following the court appearance, Mr Dow, representing Ms Gehrkens, said, “This has been a very stressful time for my client and her family.” Ms Gehrkens has had strong support from her husband, mother and father, the lawyer said.

“This has not been an easy decision, an easy process to endure,” Mr Dow said.

“She’s overwhelmed…It’s a very substantial decision in her life,” Mr Dow added.

Ms Gehrkens gave birth to a baby girl last spring.

Following court, State’s Attorney John A. Connelly noted that the victim’s family was involved in monitoring the progress of the criminal case since the beginning.

“These are difficult cases,” he said.

“It is surprising how many of these cases we’ve been seeing in the past few years,” he said of sexual assault charges involving people in teacher/student situations. “It is quite alarming,” he said.

Newtown School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff said January 10 of the Gehrkens case, “It obviously has gone through the judicial process…Justice has been done.”

The prosecutor has addressed the concerns of the victim’s family, Dr Pitkoff said.

“I hope that everyone can move on with their lives…This is a very serious crime that cannot be tolerated,” he said.