It was a day of tears, justice and outrage in Flathead District Court on a Thursday in May when one man was arraigned just hours before his half brother was sent to prison for the same crime.

Both men faced charges of felony incest.

The first man was charged in January 2013 with three counts of incest as well as one count of felony sexual abuse of children after he molested two of his children. He eventually pleaded guilty to two of the incest charges on Jan. 13 this year, while the remaining two counts were dismissed.

During emotional testimony at his sentencing, his wife, one of his victims and another of his children — as well as the second victim through a relative reading her statement — spoke of the havoc he wreaked on his family.

The abuser’s wife said their home life was a “living nightmare” from which there was no waking up. She said her husband had obliterated their marriage, which she called a facade.

“He played the role of a perfect husband, but in reality he constantly tore me down, especially to the children,” she said, later adding “I don’t believe he ever loved me, I am not sure if he is even capable of that.”

Several days before the hearing, the victims’ mother told the Inter Lake about the toxic environment in their home, in which the abuser manipulated her and their children against one another, always maintaining control while also being verbally, emotionally and physically abusive in addition to the sexual abuse of which she was, for a time, unaware.

She mentioned one incident in particular when her husband told one of his children at age 12 that the child was no good for the family and should just leave. The abuser also used sleep deprivation against his victims.

The mother said it was a long time before she and her children were able to start putting the pieces together and realize he was manipulating them and telling them different things to keep them turned against one another.

During the sentencing hearing, she was given an opportunity to speak directly to her soon-to-be ex-husband.

“You had a choice,” she said to him. “I would have helped you. What right, what absurd justification do you have for destroying our lives?”

One of the children testified about the personal effects of his behavior. The child now suffers from anger problems, problems trusting people, and grades that dropped “drastically” in the wake of abuse in the household.

“Why do you think that it was all right to molest my two sisters and abuse my tight family, ... and not get help with your problems,” the child asked the abuser. “Why do you think you can manipulate the court and the government into getting what you want? I’m not going to sit here and keep quiet any more.”

The victim who chose to appear at the hearing and testify called her father a “domestic Hitler” who put them through a “living hell.”

The victim also described suffering from hives, rashes and breathing issues due to physical stress and being diagnosed with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, hyper-vigilance, avoidance and anxiety, all as a result of the abuse.

“I sleep on our couch downstairs, I can’t sleep in my room. I would wake up to the stairs creaking with my heart racing at the tiniest sound, because that was when he was filled with lust,” the victim said. “He would come up to my room when everyone else was supposed to be asleep, when there was no one to catch him.”

When given an opportunity to address her abuser directly, the victim shared her disbelief with the moments when he appeared to be crying.

“I know what a good actor you are,” the victim said. “You can cry a river today, but it will not transform you from the evil monster I know you to be.”

Some of the most poignant testimony came from someone who wasn’t even present at the hearing, a victim who wrote a statement and asked a relative to read it. In explanation, the victim wrote, “I don’t ever want to be in the same room with him, he scares me.”

The victim had also prepared a poster with pictures of the victims at the ages before they were first molested so the judge could see what they looked like at that time.

“I want to go back in time to when I was untouched and make it me, my mom, my sister and my brother, and he would leave, never touch or harm any of us, he would just leave forever,” the victim wrote. “But I can’t, can I? We can’t, can we? Why? Why did it have to have to happen to me, to us? Why couldn’t he have moved away or asked someone to help him. Not my choice. He is to blame.”

The victim pleaded for the judge not to victimize the family again by giving her abusive father a light sentence.

“He stole my innocence, he stole my trust, he stole my hope, he stole my dreams. He shredded my soul,” the victim wrote. “Please, please don’t let him steal the consequences too. Please don’t let him make me feel smaller, more insignificant than I already feel.”

At the end of the written statement, the victim again asked the judge to look back at the pictures on the poster before determining her father’s sentence.

The guilty man’s cousin, pastor and clinical counselor testified on his behalf, saying that he was not dangerous and had, in the roughly year and a half since his actions were discovered, embarked on a journey to correct his thoughts and behavior.

They explained that the abuser has sought out treatment on his own and was paying for it himself, taking part in a 12-step program, religious counseling and sex-offender counseling under licensed clinical counselor Andy Hudak III, who was first contacted by Tom Esch, the attorney representing the offender.

Hudak testified that the abuser was himself a victim, having been molested by a female family member when he was 8 years old and that he began molesting his own children two weeks after learning his biological father, who abandoned him as a child and had since died, had also been a molester. 

Deputy Flathead County Attorney Travis Ahner referred to the comments of another medical professional who completed a psychosexual evaluation of the abuser. That evaluation concluded the man was dishonest about his sexual deviance to the point of outright lying, manipulative and narcissistic, with little psychological insight. While Hudak largely agreed with those determinations, he disagreed with the other judgments that the offender is a sex addict who is unable to control his sexually abusive behavior.

Before he was sentenced, the abusive father read a statement to the court.

“First of all I would like to say I hold no resentment or bitterness towards [my wife], [our children] or [her] family, in fact I thank them for initiating this recovery process,” he said. “I wish to assure you that I in no way blame anyone for my crimes.”

He again described his counseling at length, stating he has abandonment issues and that he was shaped by a lack of emotions in his youth, but said he was a new person and that he would make sure this would never happen again. He also said he was particularly concerned about the future of the children that he molested. In addition, he noted that if he went to prison, his stepfather would have to close the family business.

“I am so very sorry for what I have done,” he said.

The wife and children all requested a sentence of 30 years to the Montana State Prison with no opportunity for parole followed by 20 years of probation.

Ahner recommended a sentence, as set forth in a plea agreement, of 20 years in prison followed by 20 years of probation, with no opportunity for parole until the man completed phases I and II of the state’s sex offender treatment program.

Esch argued for a sentence of just 20 years of prison time, with the entire sentence suspended, and if any incarceration was necessary, that it be carried out in the Flathead County Detention Center.

Among Esch’s arguments for the limited sentence was that there was no mandatory minimum sentence in state law for the crime. Ahner disagreed, saying that Esch’s client had pleaded guilty in a way that sought to avoid a sentencing stipulation in incest cases. 

Montana law states that anyone convicted of incest in which the victim is 12 years old or younger and the person convicted was 18 or older at the time of the offense will be punished by 100 years in the state prison, with the court barred from suspending or deferring the first 25 years, during which time the offender would also not be eligible for parole.

In the end, District Judge Robert Allison chose to follow none of the recommendations, instead handing down an even longer sentence of 30 years in prison followed by 30 years of probation with no opportunity for parole until the offender completes the two phases of the sex offender treatment program.

Earlier in the day, the convicted abuser’s half brother entered a not guilty plea to a single charge of incest.

A court document in his case alleges that he inappropriately touched one of his children on Nov. 9, 2013, with several of his other children reporting to police that they heard their father the next day begging the victim not to tell their mother and to “give me another chance.”

The man also allegedly called a family friend, “crying and babbling” on the phone about how he had touched the child inappropriately and ruined his life, later texting the friend, “Words cannot describe how sorry I am for the pain that my stupid mistake has and will cause.”

The suspect’s wife said she had been out grocery shopping the day he begged the victim not to tell her what happened.

“I came home and thought he was coming out to help me with the groceries, so I met him on the steps and told him they were on the front seat of the car,” she said. “I walked in the house and found all my kids screaming or crying and I thought ‘Well, they’re fighting or something.’”

When she asked what was the matter, one of them told her, “Papa did a really bad thing, he touched me.”

"Then and there I stopped, grabbed the phone, turned around and saw him speeding away,” she said. “He wasn’t getting the groceries, he was running.”

The next day was a holiday and everything was closed, so the concerned mother spent the following night writing up her own divorce papers from forms online.

Then she acquired a post office box, closed their joint bank account, filed for a restraining order, filed for a divorce, changed their locks and put up “no trespassing” signs.

“He was, I thought, a good father,” she said. “Boy, was I wrong.” 

The mother told the Inter Lake in May that she had heard that her estranged husband had since moved into a house with a woman and a young child the same age as the child he’s accused of molesting.

The suspect and his attorney declined to comment on the case.

If convicted, the suspect faces 100 years in prison with the court barred from suspending or deferring the first 25 years, during which he would also not be eligible for parole, because he was more than 18 years old and the victim was 12 years of age or younger at the time of the alleged crime.

He would also face a fine of up to $50,000.

The suspect was initially incarcerated in the county jail, but was released after posting a $25,000 bond. His next hearing is set for Aug. 27.