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Judge sentences Flushing man to probation in child assault case

News Photo by Julie Riddle Robert Clark, right, stands with his attorney in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court on Monday, where he was sentenced for sexually assaulting a child.

ALPENA — A Flushing man who pleaded no contest to touching a child for sexual purposes already served enough time behind bars, a judge said in an Alpena court on Monday.

Robert Clark, 53, pleaded no contest to touching the girl in his truck in 2019, when she was 8. Clark declined comment before Judge Benjamin Bolser imposed sentence in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court.

In a no-contest plea, a defendant agrees to not fight charges but doesn’t admit guilt. A no-contest plea is treated the same as a guilty plea at sentencing.

In a victim impact statement, read on the survivor’s behalf by Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski, the girl told the court she thought Clark earned time behind bars.

“You put yourself in that orange jumpsuit,” the survivor told Clark in the statement. “You should be ashamed of what you did.”

News Photo by Julie Riddle Trenton Agar listens as he’s sentenced on Monday in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court.

The News does not identify survivors of sexual assault without their consent.

Bolser sentenced Clark to five years of probation — including a stipulation that he stay away from anyone under 17 years old — and to 56 days in jail, with credit for 56 days served. Clark must register as a sex offender.

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Trenton Agar, 27, will go to prison for sexual assault after he pleaded no contest to having sexual contact with a female when they were both minors, beginning when she was 3 and lasting until he was 14.

Before Agar was sentenced, the survivor told the court she had to endure not only the assaults, but also adults who didn’t believe her or did nothing when she told them what Agar did.

“No one wanted to hear the truth,” the woman said.

Her struggle to be believed has taken a toll on her, but she’s a fighter, the woman told the court.

Bolser sentenced Agar to two to 15 years in prison, with credit for 275 days served. The judge also imposed one-year sentences for each of two unrelated drug and assault charges.

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Attorneys will have to wait to learn the fate of a child pornograpy charge against Bradley Avery, of Alpena.

Sexually suggestive photos of children on Avery’s phone, ostensibly downloaded from a legitimate porn site, were there without Avery’s knowledge, attorney Dan White said in court on Monday.

White asked Bolser to dismiss the charge now, contending that no argument the prosecution might make could save the charge from being dismissed for lack of evidence once Avery goes to trial.

Such a decision, based only on the limited evidence presented by witnesses during a hearing in a lower court in July, would be inappropriate, Muszynski said, indicating she has more proof on the matter to offer if Avery’s case makes it to trial.

Bolser said he would issue an opinion on the matter shortly.

Avery is also accused of secretly videotaping girls as they changed clothes during the 2017 Alpena County Fair.

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