Michael Nef

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I know it seems like all my posts are coming from the news media lately, but it seems like there has been a lot going on, that the news has been covering. This case was unfortunate, and i feel terrible for the victims. Why the judge gave Nef a 6 month sentence is beyond me, and I do hope he gets a harsher punishment when his 6 months is over.

A local man is putting pressure on
the state legislature to change sentencing requirements for sex
offenders. David Bigelow hopes to help legislators create a law that
would enforce mandatory minimum sentences for certain sex crimes.

This
comes after he says his neighbor, Michael Nef, was sentenced too
leniently for one of the most atrocious sex abuse cases Jefferson
County prosecutors have ever seen.

Currently there are no
mandatory minimum sentences for first time sex offenders like Nef in
Idaho.  There are only mandatory minimums for repeat offenders.

This
fall, Nef pleaded guilty to abusing two relatives for a period of 20
years.  He admits to  genital to genital contact with a three year old,
he also admits to videotaped sex with a 13 year old and perhaps the
most disturbing admission, he forced his relative into sex with the
family dog.

Bigelow says, "This is an outrage, I think if people come to understand this, they too will be outraged."

In
November, Judge Brent Moss sentenced Nef to a retained jurisdication,
meaning Nef will spend six months in prison and then Judge Moss will
decide whether or not to place him on parole or in prison for the
remaining life sentence.

Bigelow says it's ridiculous to give
an offender like this the possibility to get out after six months. He
says, "Every other sexual pervert in the hidden closet will see this
and say, 'it doesnt matter, ill be evaluated and released.' Every
little girl who's been abused will say, 'why should I come forward,
what justice will be done?"

At sentencing, Judge Moss said he
decided on the retained jurisdiction because he didn't feel like he had
enough information about Nef.  Judge Moss hopes the six months of
evaluation will provide the information he needs for a more complete
sentence.

Since Nef's sentencing, bigelow has accumulated
newspaper clippings of other notable sentences, "A federal judge
sentenced Michael Vick to 23 months in prison in dog fighting case,
that doesn't sound like common sense.  It just doesn't make sense, a
man who fights dogs vs. a man who abused kids."

Bigelow has
printed out 500 petitions, hoping that thousands of local people will
sign them and send a message to legislators that a retained
jurisdiction isn't the right sentence for people like Michael Nef. " I
want to send a message that we will not tolerate in this society,
judges slapping hands of sex offenders."

Representative Dean
Mortimer told Local News 8 on Thurday, "If theres an issue we need to
work on, I want to help. I plan to get more information."

Interestingly,
right now Utah is seriously looking at implementing Jessica's law which
would require anyone convicted of raping a child to 25 years in prison.

Nef's retained jurisdiction is up on May 19th, 2008, after
that he will serve the rest of his life sentence on probation or in
prison.

For more information on Bigelow's petition, you can email David at davidbigelow49@msn.com.