William Bartlett was originally charged with two felony counts of statutory sodomy after police said he fondled a 9-year-old girl in 2015. The judge dismissed one of the counts at the close of the state’s evidence during a jury trial in December. Bartlett took the witness stand in his own defense, and testified that he had touched the nine-year-old girl’s private parts, but did so accidentally.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on a lessor-included offense of second-degree child molestation, a class-A misdemeanor.
On Wednesday, Buchanan County Circuit Judge Patrick Robb imposed the maximum sentence of one year in the county jail. The defendant has already spent more than a year in jail in the case. Bartlett was arrested in December of 2015, and remained behind bars until December of 2016, when he was released on his own recognizance.
Bartlett told the court he intends to move to Nebraska. Judge Robb reminded him that he will need to register as a sexual offender.