My buddy Lilo told me about this horrible story from Tipton county in Indiana where a man convicted of molesting an 11-year-old and a 5-year-old has been given a plea deal where he’ll serve NO jail time for his horrible crimes. What’s worse is that there are rumors of the pervert getting special treatment from authorities because his father, Bill Nichols, is the county coroner and his uncle, Brad Nichols, is a county councilman.
Brad Nichols is a Republican, so considering our party’s hard-line law-and-order stance I would think he’d have been more vocal about such a travesty of justice even if the criminal involved was his nephew. He can be contacted here if you have any questions regarding why his nephew is getting special treatment.
Hamilton County Deputy Prosecutor Stephanie Smith claims that the light sentence was “an appropriate resolution that will save the children the trauma of testifying in a trial,†even though the victims’ families objected to what was clearly a sweetheart deal. From The Kokomo Tribune:
The plea bargain agreed upon by Smith and Nichols’ attorney, Jim Crum, would result in Nichols pleading guilty to child molest as a C felony filed in Tipton County and two C felony child molest charges in Hamilton County.
The Tipton County charges allege Nichols fondled a boy who was 7 or 8 between April 1, 2003, to Nov. 30, 2003. The two Hamilton County charges allege he fondled or touched an 11-year-old boy on two occasion between May 1, 2002, and May 31, 2002.
The plea, if granted by Proffitt, would have Nichols serve six years all suspended with four years of probation on all three charges with the Tipton County and Hamilton County offenses to run consecutive for a total of eight years probation and no jail time. Nichols also would be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Proffitt will make her decision on the plea at an Aug. 13 hearing.
Now that’s a sweat heart deal! But wait, there’s more:
Smith and Proffitt took over the case after Tipton County Prosecutor Jay Rich and Tipton Circuit Court Judge Tom Lett recused themselves due to perceived conflicts of interest.
Both men have worked with Nichols’ father, Bob Nichols, the Tipton County coroner, and his uncle, Brad Nichols, a county councilman.
If convicted of the original charges, Aaron Nichols could serve from six to 20 years for each B felony and two to eight years for each C felony.
I’m sure prosecuting your boss’ friends isn’t a conflict of interest either. Like I said Lilo is all over this one including in a post on Perverted Primates. The grapevine at Primates is ripe and juicy. Here’s a little tidbit she manged to pull out from a newspaper comment section:
The truth is that one brave child TOLD on him for forcing him to take his penis in his mouth and had for a long time in ’04. At this time CPS became involved and Aaron told his Dad, the Tipton Co. Coroner, that he had molested many other children as well and his father, Bob Nichols, told him to keep his mouth shut about the other victims! For two more years Bob sat back and allowed Aaron to carry on and be around little kids all the time in their homeschool group, Boy Scouts, church, 4-H, etc…. After the child told on him in ’04 he entered counciling and eventually the counselor told him he had to disclose all his victims and when he finally did, the counselor told him he had 48 hrs to turn himself in, or he would.
I know it’s just a rumor, but it jibes well with this little tidbit I found on the Topix forum about Nichols. Apparently a guy named Timothy Moore got a 4 year sentence for a Class C felony child molest charge from the same judge. He had the same Prosecutor and the same defense attorney. He got a very different sentence and Prosecutor Stephanie Smith wasn’t shy about putting his young victim on the stand.
Bonnie’s Blog of Crime has a letter published by a friend of the victims’ families that was in the court and witnessed Prosecutor Smith in action. It’s a must read and will get your blood boiling. Smith apparently thinks jail time would “undo” Nichols’ progress in counseling. At least that’s what she screamed at a father of one of his victims!
The sentencing doesn’t happen until August 13th so Lilo is spearheading the drive to get the judge in the case to reject the plea. Please take some time out to contact the judge and ask her to dispense true justice:
Judith S. Proffitt Judge
One Hamilton County Square #337
Noblesville, IN 46060
Phone: 317-776-9635
Administrator: 317-776-8589
Prosecutor Smith can be contacted also. Be prepared to be yelled at by a woman who thinks she’s much better than you:
Prosecutor’s Office:
Hamilton County Deputy Prosecutor Stephanie Smith
Phone: 317-776-8595,
Fax: 317-776-8469
Address: One Hamilton County Square Suite 134 Noblesville, IN 46060-2230
Let’s help Nichols’ victims get the justice they deserve.
No rapes were involved. How about a different title?
No, you read into it a little better. What else would you call molesting little children? It IS a rape – not only to their bodies, but to their minds too! Now, the prosecutor wants to rape them even more by letting this sick pervert off without any real consequences!
Rape is a specific physical act and a different crime than what is involved here.
So what crime do you think he committed?
I am assuming that the molester has been around younger children in the family; siblings, cousins, etc. If so, statistically speaking, those children or at least some of those children have probably been victims of this man, as well.
If none of them are part of the charges in this case, I doubt if any type of response would be forthcoming from the uncle mentioned. It also makes me wonder just how much of a cover up there has been for this molester and for how long?
There is documentation that the father knew. Who else knew? Why did they fail their son and the community, especially friends, associates, etc. by not alerting them to their son’s serious problem? Seemingly, this is a very social family, and had plenty of opportunity for interaction with families with youngsters. How many of these molestations could have been diverted? By the father not alerting/warning these families, is that not abetting? If the father knew that the son had issues and continued to have him around young children as reported, then he is absolutely a danger to society, as well as his son!
I understand the father of the molester is not only a major player in the politics of this small town, but also the coroner of the county. A call should be made for his removal from office. This man should never, ever be involved in the decision making, or legalities of this town or any other.
Why is there not charges brought against him, as well as his son?
I join you in writing the judge. I join you in spreading the word of this sad example of the kids, once again being short-changed! This man and his father need to be imprisoned for not only what happened, but for why is was allowed to happen!
Well said Naomi and thanks for your support. I think an investigation of this family is definitely in order, because a lot of what’s going on doesn’t add up. It seems like they thought that after the Aaron molested children they could just “fix” him by sending him to therapy and had no interest in justice for his victims.
It makes you wonder why they thought this was the kind of thing families handled internally.
Read Closer: Are you splitting hairs in an attempt to minimize what he’s done to those children?
Brad has his own little reasons for keeping quiet. If only he would do the right thing Aaron would be where he belongs.
Am I getting this right? A prosecutor in Tipton knew about this for over a year and didn’t do anything about it? Why hasn’t he been disciplined?
The dad knew and told the son not to tell about the others? Why no charges against the dad too?
Someone who has confessed to molesting children may get no time because his family had the money to hire some expensive lawyers?
The prosecutor in Hamilton County has agreed to this plea bargain? Isn’t she supposed to be FOR the victims?
How can this be?
Everyone thinks there has been this big conspiracy in this ordeal. Get real…..the Tipton County Prosecutor drug his feet because he does that on ALL his cases. He won’t go after deadbeat dads when there are single mothers needing the support. One thing I have to say about him…he is consistent!
As far as the Hamilton County Prosecutor, she was very lucky to get Aaron waived to adult court since the crimes occurred when he was under the usual age of 16 or more to waive kids to adult court. That in and of itself is a major jump in this case.
True, the tipton county prosecutor is consistent about letting major criminals go, and there does seem to be a problem getting a parent to court to even be ordered to pay child support. It’s starting to seem like the prosecutor just don’t care about children, unless they have parents who can donate to his campaign.
Getting the Aaron Nichols molestation case was a huge feat I will agree, but why did she stop there? Why not say, no plea bargain without some real consequences – or it will be taken to trial?
This guy has not spent one night in jail. He will still be free to roam about. It should alarm everyone with children.
Revision: “getting the molestation case to be tried in adult court was a huge feat”
Conspiracy!!!!!!!!!!
What do you know??? The investigator himself told me that Aaron molested from the age of 13 until just before turning 18. There has been a ton of underhandedness in this that you don’t know about.
Unless, of course, you are one of the Nichols and in that case……..no wonder you are trying to put a spin on it here.
Glad to see an unbiased…opinion on this matter…someone NOT involved directly with this crime can see what the rest of us see….
There’s a conspiracy here, Nichol’s family has done everything in their power to keep him from being exposed as a dangerous sexual predator. No family would want to see their love ones go to jail, but Nichol’s has committed heinous crimes and protecting him from prosecution is immoral and was likely illegal.
Rob,
Thanks again for sharing this.
You’re last comment about the ‘likely illegal’ got me to thinking and I vaguely recalled something interesting from past work I’ve done, and so with a quick search of the child abuse laws in Indiana, I stumbled upon this:
IC 31-34-1 A child is in need of services if before the child’s 18th birthday:
* The child’s physical or mental health condition is seriously impaired or seriously endangered as a result of the inability, refusal, or neglect of the child’s parent/guardian/ custodian to supply the child with necessary food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, or supervision
* The child’s physical or mental health is seriously endangered due to injury by the act or omission of the child’s parent/guardian/custodian. An omission is an occurrence in which the parent/guardian/custodian allowed that person’s child to receive an injury the parent/guardian/custodian had a reasonable opportunity to prevent or mitigate
* The child is the victim of a sex offense under the criminal citations incorporated into the CHINS definition
* The child’s parent/guardian/custodian allows the child to participate in an obscene performance
* The child’s parent/guardian/custodian allows the child to commit a sex offense
It’s the last one that would count here, since Aaron’s parent knew of his behavior, and did nothing about it- thus ALLOWING him to commit a sexual offense.
Of course, it gets better, since Indiana doesn’t really deem only certain people responsible for reporting abuse as defined above (some states make the law to apply only to professionals, they don’t)
———————————–
Reporting:
Any individual who has reason to believe that a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect must make a report. In agencies in which there are established reporting protocols, the report may be made to the individual in charge or another designated agent, who also becomes responsible to report or cause a report to be made. This does not relieve individuals who make a report to another staff person of their own obligation to report directly to child protection services or law enforcement unless a report has already been made by the agency liaison. Anonymous reports are accepted. Failure to make a report can be a Class B misdemeanor.
—————————
So, not only was his father guilty of child abuse by allowing him to commit sex offenses, he broke another law by failing to report the abuse.
Wonder when someone will get around to charging the father?
Good catch, but I’m not holding my breath of anyone to get charged. The Nichols family has used it’s political connections, it seems, to sweep this affair under the rug and get Aaron a sweetheart deal. Personally, I’m suspicious as to why they didn’t institutionalize him when they found out.
That the first thing they did when finding out a family member is molesting children was to orchestrate a cover-up makes me think there is a lot more to this story.
Maybe nobody cares, but the judge sadly accepted the plea……..
Now the DOC and the Hamilton Co prosecutor’s office are in a legal battle as to whether or not the law will be followed on the mandatory lifetime offender notification since the victims were all under the age of 12, or whether or not, once again, Aaron will get special treatment and only get 10 yrs on the list.