Polk County DA's Office Prosecutes Another Sex Offender, LIVINGSTON, September 11, 2008 - Two 50 year sentences was the punishment given out as Polk County Criminal District Attorney Lee Hon successfully prosecuted another sex offender. Mark Allen Rose is the third sex offender since August 19th to get serious prison time handed down by the Polk County legal system. District Attorney Lee Hon said he was pleased with the punishment and that he hopes the stiff sentences being handed out will send out the message to sex offenders that when they're caught, they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The following is a press release from the office of the Polk County Criminal District Attorney:
A Polk County Jury recommended that Mark Allen Rose, age 39 of Livingston, be sentenced to serve 50 years in prison on Wednesday following a 3 day trial before Judge Robert Hill Trapp in the 411th District Court. Rose had been indicted by a Polk County Grand Jury in August of 2007 for two counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child, a First Degree felony, stemming from multiple instances of sexual abuse occurring in June, 2007 in the Indian Springs area and involving a 6 year old female victim. The case was prosecuted by Polk County Criminal District Attorney Lee Hon.
At trial, the evidence presented included the testimony of the victim who described in graphic detail instances of sexual abuse by the defendant occurring in her grandmother’s home and in a nearby wooded area. According to testimony, Rose was a friend of the victim’s family and lived on the property of the victim’s grandmother in the Indian Springs subdivision. Other witnesses at trial included members of the victim’s family who had observed questionable behavior on the part of the defendant directed toward the victim; the victim’s mother; and Polk County Sheriff’s Detective Christi Allen who had conducted the investigation. In addition, Kari Prihoda and Karen Trevino of Children’s Safe Harbor, a Children’s Advocacy Center in Conroe, testified regarding a forensic interview and sexual assault examination performed on the victim. The jury deliberated approximately one hour before returning guilty verdicts on both counts of the Indictment.
Mark Allen Rose listens as his punishment of two 50 year prison sentences are read by 411th District Judge Robert Trapp.
During the punishment phase of the trial, defense psychologist Walter Quijano testified that Rose, although mildly retarded, also met the diagnostic criteria for a pedophile as well as several of the diagnostic criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder. Quijano conceded that there is no known cure for pedophilia and that such offenders cannot be trusted to have access to young children. Polk County Community Supervision Officer John Saxon testified that although the defendant was eligible for a probated sentence, the reason that sex offenders were subject to such stringent conditions on probation was that such offenders were never truly cured and were a danger to re-offend. The jury deliberated barely 30 minutes before returning with a sentence of 50 years in prison on each count. Rose will have to serve a minimum of twenty-five years in prison before he may be considered for parole. Upon release, Rose will also be subject to a lifetime registration requirement as a sex offender.
Following the trial, Hon stated that he was “extremely proud of the jury and its verdict and sentence.” Hon added that “the last three trials we have conducted have all involved sex offenses against children and each trial has resulted in a guilty verdict and stiff sentence.” “I could not be more proud of the people of Polk County and the stand they are taking to protect the youngest and most vulnerable members of our county, namely our children, from those who seek to do them harm,” Hon concluded. On August 6, a Polk County jury sentenced 42 year old David Kent Ortiz to 18 years in prison for the Second Degree felony offense of Indecency with a Child involving the sexual abuse of a 7 year old girl. Later the same week, a separate jury sentenced Brandon Rushing, age 27 of Livingston, to Life in prison for the Aggravated Sexual Assault of his 9 year old daughter.
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