Teacher Sentenced to 50-75 Years for Assaulting Youngster at Preschool

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (AP) _ A former preschool teacher was sentenced Monday to 50 to 75 years in prison for raping a 4-year-old boy at a day-care center last year.

Berrien County Circuit Judge Ronald Taylor said that because of parole provisions, a life sentence, the maximum for the crime, ″is not sufficient″ for Richard Barkman.

Taylor said that with a life sentence, Barkman could be paroled in 10 years, but under the sentence he imposed, Barkman will have to serve at least 381/2 years before becoming eligible for release.

Barkman, 28, was convicted April 2 of one count of first-degree and two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. Taylor sentenced Barkman to 10 to 15 years on the second-degree counts, to run concurrently with the longer term.

Barkman’s attorney, Joseph Spiezer, said he would appeal the convictions.

″Why doesn’t it bother anybody that there’s absolutely no corroboration with any of this″ evidence against his client, he said.

A jury convicted Barkman after deliberating about 51/2 hours. The victim, now 5 years old, testified as the first prosecution witness in the trial.

Barkman, who has been held without bond since his arrest in October, faces 16 other first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct charges in connection with alleged attacks on eight other children at the Small World Pre-school in Niles Township.

Barkman originally was charged with two counts of first-degree and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in attacks on the boy between April and July 1984 at the school.

Barkman’s wife, Rebecca, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of failing to report suspected child abuse, but those charges were dropped May 30 on a motion from the Berrien County prosecutor’s office.

Mrs. Barkman was the director of the school, which closed Sept. 17, shortly before Barkman was arrested. Since her husband’s arrest, Mrs. Barkman has become Michigan co-director of Victims of Child Abuse Laws.