Last-minute plea deal reached in Thurow case

Robert Thurow Jr. reached a last-minute deal with prosecutors just before his trial was set to begin on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Sidney man pleaded guilty to child abuse, a class I misdemeanor, in Cheyenne County District Court. Thurow was initially charged with third-degree child sexual assault.

According to court documents, Thurow entered an Alford plea – meaning he maintains his innocence but admits there is enough evidence to find him guilty.

Thurow was sentenced to 147 days in jail, with credit for the 147 days he has spent in custody since his arrest.

His arrest last spring stemmed from a nearly year-long police investigation.

According to court documents, Thurow allegedly sexually assaulted a four-year-old girl in May, 2014.

A probable cause affidavit in the case states during a medical exam of the girl in June of last year, health care workers found possible evidence of sexual assault. Law enforcement officers were called, and the girl said Thurow had touched her "lots."

In an interview with police last summer, he denied the charges and offered to take a polygraph test.

With the criminal case in Cheyenne County resolved, Thurow will now have to appear in federal court for a hearing to determine if he violated the terms of his supervised release stemming from a 2009 drug conviction.

In that case, Thurow was sentenced to 60 months in custody followed by 60 months of supervised release after 100 marijuana plants, $17,000 in cash and a dozen firearms were found at his Sidney residence.

A mandatory condition of his release was that he not commit another federal, state or local crime.

"If the court finds the offender has violated this condition, which is a grade A or B violation, revocation is mandatory," a federal summons for Thurow states.