Crescent-News.com - Hicksville man gets nine years on rape charges

By TODD HELBERG
cnedit@crescent-news.com
A Hicksville man was sentenced to nine years imprisonment on four child sex abuse charges Monday in Defiance County Common Pleas Court.
Judge Joseph Schmenk sentenced Rex Fockler, 51, on three counts of rape, each a first-degree felony, and one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, a third-degree felony. Schmenk imposed a nine-year sentence on each rape offense and a four-year term for the other charge, ordering that they run concurrently.
Fockler was also classified as a tier 3 sexual offender " the most serious " for purposes of registration following his release from prison.
According to assistant county prosecuting attorney Morris Murray, Fockler had sexual conduct (digital penetration) with four separate female victims between 1997 and 2005. The girls' ages were 10, 9, 6 and 15, respectively, when the crimes occurred.
Five other counts of rape " returned by a county grand jury in October " were also dismissed as part of the plea negotiations reached between Murray and Fockler's attorney, Steve Archer of Defiance.
The maximum penalty for each rape charge was 10 years imprisonment.
However, Murray recommended a nine-year prison term based on the victims' wishes. A plea, he noted, also avoided trial testimony.
He said the victims felt that with "Mr. Fockler acknowledging some wrongdoing and willing to be contrite and remorseful, that helped a little bit." At the same time, Murray noted, there was a sense that nine years was "not enough."
Indeed, Defiance County victims advocate Sally King said while the victims agreed with the recommendation, one "thinks what he did is so bad that he should go longer."
Archer said the crimes should "happen to no one," but he added that "this is perhaps the least egregious form of intrusion. ... Mr. Fockler has had difficulty coming to acknowledge his conduct, but he has acknowledged it."
Asked to make a comment, Fockler said, "I apologize for what happened and I'm sorry."
Schmenk conceded that the "nature of the conduct" probably is "not addressed by a nine-year term." But he recognized the plea negotiations and said Fockler's "willingness to admit the conduct" as well as "the level of sexual conduct in that overall definition of sexual conduct" were "legitimate" factors for following the nine-year recommendation.