DARLINGTON — Unless he lives to the age of 109, Greg P. Gogin is unlikely to experience life out of prison after a judge last week denied his request for a new sentence.
Gogin, who turned 60 this week, is scheduled for release in 2068.
At an evidentiary hearing June 27, his attorneys called him to the witness stand and argued for a new sentencing or a sentence modification so that Gogin might get a chance at life and rehabilitative treatment outside prison.
Judge Duane Jorgenson denied the request, calling Gogin’s sentence “well reasoned and well thought-out.”
As for treatment, “you can certainly rehabilitate yourself while incarcerated,” he told Gogin.
Gogin is convicted of repeatedly sexually assaulting two young girls, and repeatedly raping one, over the course of more than a decade while living in Monroe.
During this time, he was a Cub Scouts leader, Monroe Arts Center underwriter, YMCA board member and a member of the St. Clare of Assisi Parish council at St. Victor Catholic Church.
After entering plea deals, he was sentenced in Green County Circuit Court in August 2016 to 40 years in prison, plus an additional 13 years in October 2016 for a similar conviction in Waukesha County involving one of the victims.
Soon after his sentencing, he began the process of seeking an appeal or re-sentencing and hired private attorneys to represent him.
Now an inmate at the maximum security prison in Boscobel, Gogin appeared in court June 27 shackled and wearing green prison scrubs. The hearing took place at the Lafayette County Courthouse in Darlington to accommodate Jorgenson, who is the Lafayette County Circuit Court judge.
Gogin’s motion sought a new sentence, in part on the claim that the original sentence, handed down by Rock County Circuit Judge James Daley, relied on inaccurate information regarding the assaults of one of his victims.
His attorneys, Jeremiah Meyer-O’Day and Cole Daniel Ruby, called him to the stand to testify specifically about his assaults of this victim.
Gogin testified that he assaulted the girl twice within about six months when she was about 8 or 9 years old.
He said he was “certain there were only the two incidents,” because during the second assault, “I looked in her eyes and I could see the hurt.”
“I knew I could never do that to her again,” he said, choking up.
According to the criminal complaint, however, in the years after that he went on to repeatedly rape the other girl. In addition, the first girl told police Gogin began molesting her when she was about 5 and continued until she was about 11.
Meyer-O’Day said that Gogin’s assaults on both victims were “egregious and awful” but the number of assaults involving the first victim were “not anywhere near to what she alleged.” He argued that Gogin deserved a new sentencing because the original sentence took into account her “vague and fuzzy” allegations.
Green County District Attorney Craig Nolen, the prosecutor on the case, tried to show on cross-examination that Gogin had not specifically disputed the first victim’s allegations prior to his sentencing.
“This is not the time for Mr. Gogin to be coming in here and saying it was only one or two times,” Nolen said.
Jorgenson agreed. He said Gogin had the opportunity before his sentencing to point out any inaccuracies in the pre-sentence investigation report, but didn’t.
Gogin listened with closed eyes as Jorgenson denied his motion for a new sentence.