Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
A 56-year-old Potter man was sentenced to four years of intensive supervised probation and 90 days in the Cheyenne County jail on Tuesday for child abuse and tampering with a witness.
In December 2013 Jason Frei pled guilty to one count of negligent child abuse and one count of attempted witness tampering, both class one misdemeanors, as part of a plea agreement with the state. Frei was initially charged with sexual assault of a child, a felony.
While he was giving Kristie Keenan a massage at his home in August of last year, Frei reportedly groped the woman’s 7-year- old daughter. Following the incident Keenan attempted to extort $20,000 from Frei to get help for her daughter and to buy a new furnace. Frei reportedly paid Keenan $10,000.
As part of his plea agreement, Frei agreed to assist the state in its case against Keenan. She pled no contest to a charge of felony extortion in May and was sentenced to 12 to 36 months imprisonment last week.
“My client did not sexually molest this girl,” said Don Miller, local lawyer representing Frei.
He acknowledged that some sort of inappropriate touching occurred between Frei and the girl, but that he could not explain what happened on the day of the incident.
“He was threatened and demanded to pay money because of this incident,” Miller said.
Miller pointed out that his client cooperated with the sheriff’s office as soon as he was arrested.
“His character, his life before this was that of a law-abiding citizen” the lawyer said.
Miller argued that his client was not evil or a predator.
“Mr. Frei understands that the incident that occurred was hurtful,” Miller said.
Frei declined to make a statement before he was sentenced.
District court judge Derek Weimer questioned how massaging Keenan led to inappropriate touching between Frei and Keenan’s daughter. All the facts surrounding the incident last year were clouded by Keenan’s illegal actions after the fact, Weimer said. What actually happened that day remains unclear.
“It does impugn the credibility of both sides when I’ve got one person demanding money and the other paying,” he said.
In addition to probation and jail time, Frei was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and to complete 500 hours of community service. Frei was given two days credit for jail time already served.
Weimer also ordered Frei to serve the anniversary date of the incident, Aug. 16 in jail during 2015, 2016 and 2017.
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