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Man gets 10 years for assaulting 8-year-old

ALPENA — An 18-year-old Alpena man will spend at least 10 years behind bars for the sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl.

“Most of the time, I want to cry,” the girl wrote in a victim impact statement read in court Tuesday by Alpena County Assistant Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski.

Damian Barton, of Alpena, is accused of sexually assaulting the girl. She disclosed the assault after watching a school presentation in May teaching children about inappropriate touching.

The News does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Barton pleaded guilty in December to first-degree criminal sexual conduct, plus two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct for touching a minor in a sexual manner.

He was sentenced Tuesday to a minimum of 10 years and six months in prison, up to 40 years. He must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

A separate charge of bestiality was dropped as part of a plea agreement. Barton is accused of sexually assaulting a dog.

Defense attorney Ron Bayot asked the judge to depart downward from the suggested 10-year sentence, citing Barton’s “absolutely horrible childhood” and lack of guidance in his past.

In her impact statement, read before the sentencing, the victim asked the judge to sentence Barton to as long a sentence as possible, “so I don’t feel so bad every day.”

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An alcohol-fueled, two-block joyride on an off-road vehicle earned an Alpena man a two-year stay in prison.

Elliot Betterly, of Alpena, was in court Tuesday for a probation violation related to a June incident in which he mounted an offroad vehicle in a church parking lot and drove it two blocks to his home, where he was found by Michigan State Police troopers lying on the front porch with the ATV parked nearby.

The incident happened while Betterly, 46, was on probation after being released from jail 99 days into a five months’ jail sentence, according to the Alpena County Prosecutor’s Office.

A man with 13 prior felonies and 38 misdemeanors on his record, including at least seven previous operating while intoxicated-related convictions, Betterly applied to be admitted to drug court, but was denied, his attorney said.

Prison is not the right result for a guy driving drunk for a few blocks, Alpena County Prosecutor Ed Black said, but local jail time and numerous attempts at substance abuse treatment programs haven’t been effective.

“Frankly, he should have gone to prison before,” Black said.

“Based on your history, I don’t know what else I can do with you,” Judge Benjamin Bolser told the defendant, sentencing him to 23 months in prison.

A request by Betterly to turn himself in later in the day was denied by the judge, who said he feared the defendant would flee the area.

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Another probation violation led to 11 months in the county jail for Chastity Wolff, of Lansing.

Wolff admitted to violating her parole by threatening another participant at Alpena’s Sunrise Centre residential drug and alcohol treatment center.

After her attorney, citing difficult times Wolff was undergoing while on detox, asked for less than the recommended 12-month sentence, the prosecution reminded the court that, after pleading guilty to drug delivery charges in spring, Wolff fled the area and avoided serving as a witness in the trial of convicted trafficker Milton Baytops.

Wolff was arrested in March while she and Baytops were staying with a local woman and using young women of the community as distributors of heroin laced with deadly fentanyl, doses of which killed several Alpena residents.

Wolff will serve 11 months in the Alpena County Jail, with credit for 162 days served.

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A man with children in his Alpena home when he was arrested in September for running a drug house pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling illegal drugs and intimidating a witness.

A four-month investigation by the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team led to Carl Standen’s arrest at his home on West Washington Avenue for selling Xanax and an imitation LSD-like substance.

Seven children, including an 8-month-old infant, were found at the home where Standen and several other people were selling and using controlled substances.

After posting bond, Standen admitted in court Tuesday, he contacted a person he thought had informed on him to police, sending her messages telling her that someone who messes with him and his children “will be messed with” and indicating, in a threatening manner, that he knew where he could find her.

Standen will be sentenced March 2.

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An Alpena man who was hidden in the attic by his father when police came to arrest him pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of delivery of methamphetamine.

Joshua Dziuba, 31, who had a prior conviction of delivery of controlled substances/narcotics in 2016, fled into his house in June, taunting officers outside until they obtained a search warrant and entered the residence.

Dziuba’s father, who now faces his own charges of assaulting an officer and harboring misdemeanants, denied Dziuba was present until police found Dziuba hiding under insulation in the attic.

Dziuba was sentenced to five to 20 years in prison.

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