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Notice of appeal filed in Nichols sex misconduct case
A notice of appeal has been filed on behalf of a 50-year-old Greencastle man, convicted in August and sentenced last month in a sexual misconduct case.
In an Aug. 14 bench trial, Mark D. Nichols was found guilty of three counts of the Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor and two counts of the Class C felony sexual misconduct with a minor. The guilty verdicts were handed down by Judge Denny Bridges at the conclusion of a three-hour bench trial in Putnam Superior Court.
Just a month later, Judge Bridges sentenced Nichols to 30 years in the Indiana Department of Correction with 25 of the 30 years to be executed and the remaining five years of the sentence suspended on probation.
The former ResCare employee was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years following his release from prison.
Nichols' new court-appointed lawyer Joel C. Wieneke Wednesday filed a notice of appeal in the case with the Indiana Court of Appeals.
Wieneke told the Banner Graphic there's not much to report on the appeal yet. His notice of appeal sets the wheels in motion for him to receive a transcript of the Nichols trial and sentencing hearing.
Whether that leads to an appeal of just the sentence handed down or the verdict itself remains to be seen.
The court reporter, Wieneke said, has up to 90 days to prepare the transcripts, while the Putnam County Clerk's Office has up to 30 days to provide other documents in the case.
"Yes, he intends to appeal," Wieneke assured of Nichols.
Once Wieneke receives the transcripts, the attorney will have 30 days to read, review and respond with a brief to the Court of Appeals, detailing what he believes are any alleged errors or inconsistencies in the proceedings.
Nichols was convicted of three Class B felonies and two Class C felonies in cases involving sexual contact with two minor girls under his supervision while working at the ResCare facility known as the Miller Jones Home on Greencastle's south side in late March and early April 2012.
While testimony of the two girls -- age 14 at the time of the incidents and now 17 -- was the focal point of the state's case, the young women did not appear for the prosecution during the Sept. 15 sentencing hearing.
In fact, Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter called no witnesses during the sentencing hearing, while Nichols' defense attorney, Thomas J. Gaunt of Indianapolis, called on only Nichols himself and two women who had been visiting the defendant during his three-year stay at the Putnam County Jail.
Held in the local jail since his July 2012 arrest, Nichols served 1,165 days at PCJ and that time will be applied to his sentence in the DOC. His case was delayed several times with three different defense attorneys (including court-appointed lawyers Scott Adams and Trudy Selvia) being employed and some 10 defense-requested continuances granted.
In imposing the 30-year DOC sentence, Judge Bridges ruled that aggravating factors outweighed mitigating factors in the case, noting that Nichols was in a position of trust when he "took advantage" of the 14-year-olds, whom he characterized as "minors who had been preyed upon before."
Nichols could have been facing 60 years in prison for the five felony convictions.
"You asked for a lenient sentence," Bridges said in responding to pleas from Nichols and his attorney at sentencing. "You were looking at 60 years, and I think 30 is fair."
During the bench trial, the two young women were asked to detail how they interacted with Nichols, who was the only staff member on duty overnight, in separate incidents reported March 30 and April 6, 2012.
Their stories were remarkably similar with narratives that began with Nichols sitting next to them on a couch in a downstairs common area and ended with sexual activity that escalated into intercourse.
Nichols is currently housed at the Reception and Diagnostic Center at Plainfield, awaiting transfer to another facility within the DOC.