A 71-year-old man who confessed to molesting three of his step-grandchildren won’t spend any time in jail after he reached a plea deal last week with prosecutors.
Dennis Kirkwood pleaded guilty in state District Court to six out counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor. He had been additionally charged in September 2007 with 138 other counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor, one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and four counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor.
Before an empty courtroom July 9 in Santa Fe, Kirkwood was sentenced to five years of supervised probation, and ordered to register as a sex offender by Judge Michael Sanchez. Kirkwood could have received as much as 18 years in prison, Assistant District Attorney Sarah Garcia said.
Under direction from former assistant district attorney Barbara Romo, Kirkwood was never arrested, only summoned to court, so he never spent any time in custody for his crimes. The case took almost two years to be disposed of because Kirkwood, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, was often in medical treatment, causing hearings to be postponed.
The charges were filed in connection to only the youngest of the three victims. This woman, who is now 19, could not be reached for comment, but the oldest victim was disappointed to learn from the SUN — the District Attorney’s office apparently never contacted her — that Kirkwood wasn’t getting any jail time.
“He’s a sick, sick man and it’s too bad that he’s not going to jail,” the victim said. “I don’t know where I get my strength from because he pretty much tried to turn it around and acted like it was me, something that I did. It’s just been the worst thing ever.”
The District Attorney’s office also left the lead police investigator in the dark about the progress of his case and the pending plea deal. State Police Sgt. Mitchell Maestas didn’t know the case’s outcome until reporter told him.
“It’s ridiculous,” Maestas said. “He’s a grandfather who’s been molesting his children. To me, due to the crime, he should spend life in prison.”
Kirkwood was originally accused of molesting the three girls, while they lived with him in Medanales in the late 1990s and into this decade.
The investigation began in May 2007 after the mother of a 17-year-old victim, the youngest one, told police that Kirkwood molested her daughter. The victim is Kirkwood’s step-granddaughter and his wife’s granddaughter.
The victim disclosed that Kirkwood began molesting her when she was 5 years old, according to a police report. He touched her genitals, forced her to touch his, licked her, masturbated in front of her and forced her to watch pornographic movies. The abuse continued until she was 12.
After interviewing the 17 year old, State Police tracked down Kirkwood at his workplace at Nambé Mills in Española. Kirkwood mentioned he had filed a report against himself with the state child abuse hotline saying he inappropriately touched his wife’s grandchild for several years. He admitted to police that he began touching the girl’s genitals beginning when she was around 7 years old, licked her and forced her to watch him masturbate and to watch pornographic movies.
Kirkwood further admitted to molesting another of his wife’s granddaughters, whom he said he began touching when she was 7 and had sex with until she was 18. He also disclosed he exposed himself to and molested another of his wife’s granddaughters. He said he had recently been contacted by that victim’s brother, who threatened to report him. After that, he admitted to his wife what was going on, but most of the rest of his family already knew.
The two older victims are adults now, and the statute of limitations elapsed since they were abused, Maestas said. Garcia told the court that the youngest victim agreed with the resolution of the case because she did not have her family’s support and just wanted the case to be over. Garcia and Kirkwood refused to comment further on the case’s disposition.
Like the youngest victim, the oldest didn’t have the support of her family when she disclosed the abuse, she said. Instead, both her mother and her grandmother turned on her, leading her to move away from Española and avoid family gatherings, which Kirkwood continued to attend even though his criminal activities were known.
“My whole family is just torn apart,” the victim said. “I don’t even have a relationship with anyone in my family because of him. My grandma called me and just went off on me when she found out, acting like I did something. I just can’t believe that families could defend the pedophiles over the victims.”