photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Scott Waisner is pictured Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, after his sentencing for a child sex crime.

A 57-year-old man looked away Friday as a young woman described to a Douglas County judge how he had stolen her childhood with years of sexual abuse.

“You’re so mature for your age,” she said Scott Waisner told her when she was just 14 years old — a statement that she later realized was the calling card of a groomer.

“Was I?” she asked the court, or was that just a way for Waisner, then in his 40s, to justify his sex crimes against a child?

By the time she was 15, she said, Waisner was frequently having every manner of sex with her, including when his family was watching TV in another room, and would continue to do so for years. The sex was physically painful, she said, and she entered adulthood believing “all men were this way.”

“He abused me during such a formative time in a young girl’s development,” she said, recounting years of ensuing anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

The trauma of the physical abuse was compounded, she said, by Waisner telling her repeatedly that he would kill himself if she ever told anyone what he did to her. And it was compounded too by having to relive the experiences over and over again during legal proceedings, she said.

“I understand why victims are reluctant to come forward,” she said of the ordeal, adding, “I hope my pain and suffering keep someone else from being targeted.”

The woman told the court that she didn’t know what length of prison time was suitable for Waisner but she knew he deserved “a consequence so that when he gets out he doesn’t even want to look in a child’s direction.”

After hearing from the victim and from Waisner himself and members of his family, Judge Stacey Donovan sentenced Waisner, who has no previous criminal history, to 55 months, or 4.5 years, in prison, for one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, pursuant to plea negotiations that Assistant District Attorney Samantha Foster described as lengthy and as having involved mediation. Waisner, who was represented by Thomas Bath and Timothy Riling, will also face lifetime supervision and sex offender registration after he is released.

Waisner originally faced five counts of the same crime, all dating to 2014 and involving the same child. He pleaded no contest to the single count on Sept. 16 as part of his deal with the state.

At his sentencing hearing Friday, he looked straight ahead, and in a low, sometimes choked-up voice said that he “felt and heard everything (the victim) said.”

“I’m extremely sorry for my actions,” he said, adding that he has taken to reading the Bible and hoped that the victim could also “turn toward God …to find peace”

“I was the adult and I should have known better,” he said, “and I have taken responsibility for what I’ve done.”

Members of Waisner’s family, including his mother, son and niece, asked the court for leniency, saying that Waisner was a good man and an important pillar of their family, whom his widowed mother particularly depended upon in her elder years, especially after recent losses, including the death of Waisner’s brother.

Donovan, who thanked them and the victim for speaking, noted that she had only three options for a sentence under state law: 55, 59 or 61 months in prison.

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Scott W. Waisner