Los Angeles ? A world-renowned geneticist was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison for molesting an employee’s daughter who took martial arts classes at his home.

Many people, including a Nobel Prize winner, wrote letters in support of William French Anderson, Time magazine’s runner-up for Man of the Year in 1995. But Judge Michael E. Pastor said he caused “incalculable” emotional damage to a victim he described as an insecure and trusting immigrant.

“Because of intellectual arrogance, he persisted and he got away with as much as he could,” the judge said.

Anderson, 70, was convicted in July of child molestation. He could have gotten 18 years behind bars.

Prosecutors said Anderson molested the girl from 1997 to 2001, starting when she was 10.