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August 09, 2005

‘Gross betrayal of trust’

Ex-Appleton officer gets 30 years for sexual abuse

APPLETON — Former Appleton police officer Gerald Polzin’s hands came to his face in a prayerful gesture Monday afternoon as a judge told him he will serve 30 years in prison.

Moments later, as Polzin’s estranged wife sobbed, deputies whisked him out of a packed courtroom to begin his life behind bars for sexually abusing two teenage boys.

“There was a gross betrayal of trust in the unique relationship he had with these young boys,” Outagamie County Circuit Judge Michael Gage said during the five-hour sentencing hearing.

Gage noted Polzin’s position of trust and authority as a police-school liaison officer at Appleton East High School, where he videotaped some of the crimes in his office.

“There is a pattern of predatory involvement. There is a grooming process,” the judge said.

“Where the opportunity presents itself, Mr. Polzin will act on impulse.”

The sentencing ended a yearlong case that centered on Polzin’s assaults of the boys, ages 15 and 16 at the time. The 15-year-old, a student at East, was assaulted last summer. The other victim, now 24, was a foster child in Polzin’s home in 1997.

In a plea deal, Polzin, 41, had been convicted on five counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation of a child.

“As for the victims and families I have hurt, I have nothing to offer you but words,” Polzin said before sentencing. “I will not ask for forgiveness because I know that is too much to ask for. I only hope and pray that you will somehow find peace and closure after today.”

That may not come soon, however.

The mother of the East student told the court Polzin is “a lying, deceitful, manipulating monster” for which no one should feel sorry.

“Our son and our family have been living a nightmare,” she said. “We are parents who love our children, and if there was a way I could take the pain away from my child, I would do it.”

The woman said her son, once on the honor roll, struggles to get passing grades.

“None of us will ever trust the way we did before,” she said.

Polzin’s prison time will be followed by 15 years of extended supervision. He will be 70 by the time he is released and, if he lives long enough to complete the extended supervision, then will begin 31 years of probation.

The courtroom was packed with the victims’ families and friends on one side, Polzin’s family and friends on the other. An adjacent courtroom was set up with a closed-circuit television feed to handle the overflow crowd.

Polzin also addressed his onetime police colleagues.

“To my former co-workers, I also apologize for the public response to my actions,” he said. “I only hope the public realizes these are my actions alone and have nothing to do with the Appleton Police Department and the Appleton school system.”

In his address to the court, Polzin referred to alleged sexual abuse he suffered as a child.

“I am not offering this for an excuse,” he said. “But I am simply stating I don’t know how this has affected me as I have only now started to deal with these issues that I have never received treatment for.”

Special prosecutor Shawn Mutter discounted the claim of childhood abuse, noting that it was never made known to anyone before Polzin’s arrest.

“It looks like an excuse to say, ‘What he did was terrible but let’s blame someone else,’” she said.

Although Polzin led a seemingly normal family life and was a good husband and father to his three sons, Mutter said some of the assaults took place in the basement of his house while his family was upstairs.

“His sexual urges were more important than his family,” she said, asking for a 50-year prison term.

Polzin’s attorney, Robert LeBell of Milwaukee, told Gage that Mutter’s recommendation was “a death sentence.”

“What you are saying is this person cannot change and the only remedial method we have is to put someone away for the rest of their life,” LeBell said.

After sentencing, LeBell said he was disappointed.

“His family and friends are still solidly behind Jerry and they don’t want to see a loved one go away for an extended period of time,” he said.

The case against Polzin began in summer 2004, when he realized he was being investigated by police.

The investigation was prompted by a social worker who overheard two youths talking about crude jokes Polzin told them and that he often overlooked smoking violations.

Within a month, police got wind of the possible assaults.

Polzin became alarmed and took his incriminating videotapes to his brother Rob’s house and asked him to destroy the tapes. Instead, Rob Polzin viewed a sample, then turned the tapes over to police.

Based largely on the content of the tapes, Gerald Polzin originally was charged with 22 counts of assault and sexual exploitation of a child.

The plea agreement avoided a trial in which the tapes would have been allowed.

Posted by Nealus at August 9, 2005 12:17 PM

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