Joseph Presley: 23-Year-Old Youth Minister Gets 30 Days In Jail From Judge Calvin Holden For Molesting 8-Year-Old Boy [Video]
Joseph Presley is being called the next Brock Turner by lots of people on social media, after learning about Presley’s plight. As seen in the below YouTube video with news footage from KSPR, Joseph received 30 days in jail for molesting the 8-year-old boy who was in Presley’s care. The little boy had Presley as a babysitter. Now, outrage similar to the YouTube user’s commentary in the below video is spreading online, after folks learn that Joseph received only 30 days in jail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ovGE8as2uI
As reported by the New York Daily News, the 23-year-old Presley said that he molested the boy on two occasions.
The mother of the little boy that Joseph sexually assaulted called Presley “the ultimate con man” when it was time for Presley to receive his jail sentence. Despite those warnings, Judge Calvin Holden still gave Presley 30 days in jail and five years probation as his punishment.
According to the boy’s family, Presley carefully plotted the time he would molest the boy — waiting until the boy’s family left town for a funeral. Now Joseph’s actions have changed the little boy, reported the family, calling him a child with nightmares, bad grades, and moodiness.
Judge Holden decided against giving Presley up to 10 years or 15 years in prison. Holden suspended Joseph’s 10-year sentence. That means that Presley would only be forced to serve 10 years if Joseph’s probation got revoked. Judge Holden pointed to the fact that Presley sought counseling as one of the judge’s reasons for Joseph’s light sentence. That fact isn’t sitting well with social media users who are providing backlash against Holden’s sentencing decision.
Ironically, Presley was training to be a youth minister at the time — and worked at the YMCA. But Presley’s slight smile displayed in his booking photo isn’t sitting well with viewers, nor are the words of Dee Wampler, Presley’s defense attorney, who called Joseph a “boy,” sentiments which obviously had an influence upon Judge Holden’s light, 30-day sentence for Presley.
“Do we really want to take a boy that’s not institutionalized, that has not been in prison before, and put him in prison with some real sex molesters, and some real rapists? So that he can really learn the trade? Is that what we want?”
Wampler also stated that Presley himself had been abused as a little boy.
According to KSPR, Wampler thought Presley would not benefit from a long jail sentence. As seen in the below tweets from Shaun King, a writer for the New York Daily News, Presley’s light 30-day sentence for child rape is being compared to much harsher sentences given other people for lesser crimes.
The fact that the Greene County judge gave Presley a 30-day jail sentence that should see Joseph leaving jail sometime in September is sending shockwaves throughout social media.
Presley admitted to molesting the boy when he was an 8-year-old at the boy’s own home — and once more when the boy was a 9-year-old. The boy said when he attempted to call his mother, Presley took the phone and told the boy to go to bed.
Joseph’s 30-day sentence — compared to the maximum 15-year sentence Presley could’ve received for his class B felony — is receiving comments like the following from social media users.
“So a white male committed a crime and just received a slap on the wrist? I am completely shocked.”
[Image via Shutterstock]
