Axel R. Bordelon is pictured during a sex-crimes trial on Feb. 8, 2023, in Douglas County District Court.

A Nebraska resident convicted of sexually abusing a woman in Douglas County was granted probation on Thursday, just after the woman spoke about how she gave up on creating art after the abuse and still suffers from trauma to this day.

Axel R. Bordelon, 30, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced by Judge Sally Pokorny to 64 months in prison for two counts of felony aggravated sexual battery, and Pokorny then suspended the sentence to 36 months of probation. The case stems from a series of incidents in 2014, in which Bordelon, who identifies as nonbinary and has been referred to by attorneys and court officers as Mx. Bordelon, was accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a woman they worked on a comic book project with.

At Bordelon’s trial in February, the woman testified that she didn’t report the crimes to police until 2020 out of compassion for Bordelon and out of a desire to see the comic book project become successful, as the Journal-World reported. The trial ended in a mixed verdict; although jurors found Bordelon guilty of the two sexual battery counts, they acquitted Bordelon of a count of rape and a count of criminal sodomy, and they couldn’t agree on still other counts.

On Thursday, the woman told the court that Bordelon had cost her her passion, creating art. She said that she found a letter addressed to her parents that she wrote before the abuse began, in which she detailed her struggles with mental health and self-harm. But she said that there was a glimmer of joy in the letter — specifically about creating art and working on the comic book project.

“Later that year,” when the abuse began, “I waltzed into the worst chapter of my life,” the woman said.

After she was abused, she said, she stopped drawing for years. She said she only recently realized that the reason she gave up on her passion was the abuse and the emotional damage it caused, and not anything to do with her own talent or creativity.

The woman said that she still struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, and that she had lost a job due to PTSD and other social issues. The emotions can overwhelm her at unexpected times and places, she said.

“It feels like you are made of glass and any stone in your path will break you. That’s what it feels like to be here,” the woman said.

She also said she wanted — but did not expect — Bordelon to admit that they hurt her, and that she hoped “to see justice carried out to the extent of the protection of our society.”

In this case, the Kansas sentencing guidelines left it up to the judge to determine whether an aggravated sexual battery conviction should result in probation or prison time. Bordelon’s attorney, Hatem Chahine, argued for probation. He said Bordelon had no criminal history and had identified an appropriate counseling program in Omaha, and that an evaluation by Douglas County social service provider DCCCA said that Bordelon would be better rehabilitated by therapy and probation than prison.

Pokorny said those factors were important, and that she also wanted to take the mixed verdict at Bordelon’s trial into account. She said that the facts of the case had always been difficult to follow and fully comprehend. She also noted that Bordelon had always appeared in court despite living in a different state, and that Bordelon’s gender identity made it more difficult to hand down a prison sentence.

“I am having a hard time sending Mx. Bordelon to prison,” she said. “Our prisons are not set up to handle their needs. A prison sentence could be worse than … I don’t even want to go into the horrors of what could happen there.”

In addition to the 36 months of probation, Pokorny ordered Bordelon to register as a sex offender for the next 25 years and to follow all treatment recommendations from the probation officer and therapists.

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Axel R. Bordelon