BishopAccountability.org
	Victim Walks out of Priest's Sentencing By Natalie Arnold WBAY [Wisconsin] December 16, 2004 The victim in a clergy sexual assault case angrily walked out of a Brown County courtroom Thursday when his abuser was sentenced. Father James Stein was sentenced to one year in the county jail. His victim, Mark Hodek, and his family asked the judge to give the Catholic priest at least five years in a state prison for sexually assaulting him when Hodek was 14 years old. Stein faced three charges of second-degree sexual assault against a child. He pleaded no contest to one, and the other two were dismissed. Hodek waited 16 years for this day to see Father Stein finally punished, but he couldn't bear to sit for one more second during the priest's sentencing, bursting from the courtroom to a nearby elevator. His family spoke for him. "Disappointing. Very disappointing." "Disappointed is probably my first, big reaction. Our son really has had a long, difficult struggle with this," his mother, Alice Hodek, said. The courtroom was crowded for the hearing. Family and friends wore a picture of Mark when he was a teenager, and strongly support Mark. "Very hard. Difficult throughout the almost three years" of the court process, his father, Toby Hodek, said. But it turns out the end is also very difficult. The family did not see Stein get the punishment they wanted. Not only that, but Judge Sue Bischel ordered Stein to have a face-to-face meeting with Hodek and his family to apologize. The Hodeks aren't sure if they want that. "I... I'll have to think about that for a couple of days," the victim's mother said.
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