Teen Who Got Underage Girlfriend Pregnant Gets Two Years' Probation

SOME JURORS said they regretted sentencing Kevin Gillson for sexual assault but felt bound by Wisconsin law on consensual sex. Gillson had said he wanted to marry his girlfriend, get a job and raise their child.

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. - A teenager convicted of sexual assault of a child for getting his 15-year-old girlfriend pregnant was sentenced to two years' probation today, one day before their baby was due.

Kevin Gillson, who was charged even though he said he wanted to marry his girlfriend, get a job and raise their child, had faced up to 40 years in prison.

Some jurors have said they regretted their decision to convict Gillson, but felt they had no choice.

They said that although his girlfriend testified the sex was consensual, longstanding Wisconsin law says no one under age 16 can consent to a sexual relationship.

Gillson was 18 at the time.

"I have realized I have made a mistake. I should have waited. I care very much about that child. I guess I just beg that you be lenient," he told Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Tom Wolfgram.

Unless the state's sexual-assault laws are changed retroactively, the conviction will require Gillson to register with his local police as a sex offender.

He must provide a DNA sample and is barred from doing such things as coaching youth baseball.

Wolfgram ordered Gillson to perform 100 hours of community service, get counseling and "use your best efforts" to complete high school or get an equivalency degree.

The judge also lifted an order that Gillson not see his girlfriend.

District Attorney Sandy Williams didn't recommend prison time and said today that both the girlfriend and her mother asked that Gillson not be sent to prison.

As Williams stopped to talk to reporters outside the courthouse, an older man with white hair yelled out "Don't you think you're the only sexual predator here?"

"All I did was my job," Williams said, with a shaking voice as she glanced from the television cameras to the heckler.

Gillson has been free on bail since the April 17 conviction.

While the case was pending, Gillson and his girlfriend attended marriage counseling, and Gillson quit school to take a job with benefits so his family wouldn't start out on welfare, said his minister, the Rev. George Jorenby of the United Church of Christ in Saukville.

The community of 10,000 people 30 miles north of Milwaukee had rallied around Gillson.

Before today's sentencing, more than 20 supporters gathered outside court, some carrying picket signs reading "A father is a terrible thing to lose."

The prosecutor was booed as she left the courtroom, and cheers broke out among the crowd outside the courthouse when Gillson and his parents, Sue and Joe Gillson, appeared.

"Kevin is a very loving, giving person. I am very proud of my son, yet I struggle with `Did I raise him right?' " Sue Gillson said to the judge before the sentencing.

Amy Hoile was one of the jurors who regretted convicting Gillson.

"We didn't realize we had a right to judge the application of the law," she said.

At least seven jurors signed a letter asking Gov. Tommy Thompson to pardon Gillson, she said.

"It's a poor application of the law," Hoile said. "This kid is not a sexual offender."

She said she and other jurors feel they were given no alternative but to convict, and would have acquitted Gillson had they known they could interpret the statute.

The governor's office has said it would be inappropriate to consider a pardon until after sentencing.

Thompson did form a task force to review the state's criminal code.