A former LDS Church bishop and Cache County physical education teacher was given a 21-month prison sentence Thursday for enticing a 17-year old North Carolina girl to travel to Utah to have sex with him.
Gordon Brent Bodily, 51, of Hyrum pleaded guilty to the "Internet enticement for illegal sexual activity" charges in federal court in January. He admitted having met the girl in a religion-oriented chat room while posing as a 19-year-old. He said they had sex at a Murray motel over a three-day period last June.
Bodily's attorney, Lyle Hillyard, asked Judge David K. Winder to suspend a prison sentence in leu of "out-patient" sex-offender therapy with a doctor he's been seeing since last August.
"This was one-time, aberrant behavior," Hillyard said.
Hillyard also argued that the victim, whose name and home town were not released, has indicated she does not want Bodily to be "punished" for what happened.
"For her own closure she needs to know that the defendant is being treated fairly by the court," Hillyard said, adding that Bodily has lost his job, his church position and faced public scrutiny in a community where he and his family held a "very prominent" position.
Earlier this month, Bodily voluntarily surrendered his teaching license. He was suspended from his job at the South Cache Center last year when the charges surfaced.
"We've paid the price. We've had the publicity," said Hillyard, a Republican state senator from Logan.
Winder commended Bodily for his acceptance of responsibility for the crime and his efforts to receive sex-offender therapy, but said federal sentencing guidelines put him in a "straightjacket."
Although "motivated by sympathy for the innocent people involved in this case," — Bodily's wife and children were in the courtroom for the sentencing — the judge said he could see no grounds for "downward departure" of the sentence, beyond what is given for a guilty plea.
"A victim's attitude cannot be the basis for either a downward or an upward departure," he said.
The judge also rejected Bodily's claim that the behavior was aberrant, saying there was no evidence that proved this was a "single criminal episode without significant planning." Bodily had contact with the victim, the judge said, from February until June of last year.
"He needs to get this prison time behind him as soon as he can," Winder said.
Winder said because of Bodily's "precarious financial situation," any fines beyond a $100 special assessment fee would be waived. The judge also allowed Bodily to "self-surrender" to federal authorities on May 7.
Bodily will have to participate in a sex-offender treatment program in prison, will be on supervised release for two years after serving his sentence, and must add his name to the state's sex-offender registry.
E-mail: mtitze@desnews.com