Man gets prison for molestation at Howell-area day care
A 22-year-old Whitmore Lake man who invented a game to molest a child at his mother’s day care was sentenced to prison Thursday.
Charles Jared Bollinger was sentenced to 57 months to 15 years in prison for second-degree criminal sexual conduct of a person under age 13.
When asked if he wanted to make a statement, Bollinger said he relied on what his attorney said.
His attorney, Scott Smith, read a portion of Bollinger’s statement from the probation office sentencing report in which the 22-year-old defendant said he was “feeling very lonely and suffering depression” from events in his life, including his parents’ divorce and a friend’s suicide.
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“I was seeking any companionship I could find,” Bollinger’s statement read. “At the time, I wasn’t thinking about the long-term effects. …
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“I can’t believe I was so impulsive and so inconsiderate. I am disgusted with my actions and wish desperately I could take it back,” he added.
Judge Miriam Cavanaugh said Bollinger’s “level of depravity” takes the word to a new level. She said it was obvious he knew his behavior was wrong by his threatening to kill the girl and her mother.
“There is an element of a predatory nature that is depraved and highly concerning,” the judge said. “You thought this out and came up with a game to get rid of the kids and to isolate this little girl.”
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It was alleged Bollinger, who was either 16 or 17 at the time of the assault, invented a “find the object” game that separated the then-8-year-old girl from the other children in his mother’s Howell-area day care.
Bollinger essentially told all the children that they were to go downstairs and find objects he identified, but he had the complainant, who he said “was in trouble,” stay behind. Alone with the girl upstairs, Bollinger forced the girl into sexual activities that involved penetration.
The assaults stopped, and Bollinger pulled up his pants, each time the other children ran upstairs to report whether they were successful in finding whatever object they had been ordered to locate.
“He told me if I told anyone about this, he would kill me,” the girl said in a letter read in court by Assistant Prosecutor Betsy Geyer Sedore.
The second time Bollinger assaulted the girl occurred in the bathroom when he forced her to “make out” with him and to look at his penis as he had a bowel movement.
The girl said she now has nightmares about Bollinger killing her.
The girl’s mother expressed anger that Bollinger’s mother left him in charge of the children she was legally caring for, and she questioned how many, if any, other victims might exist.She also said her daughter attempted suicide multiple times as a result of the molestation.
“She believed it was better to take her life than for (Bollinger) to kill her,” the mother said. “… I am angry that my trust in our day care provider was violated. I am angry that my beautiful innocent daughter was violated. … I am sad that she suffered silently for all those years while (he) was free and possibly hurting others.”
The girl asked the judge to sentence Bollinger to at least three years and up to life in prison while her mother asked for at least five years.
“The (plea) offer was made without our input,” the mother said. “(The victim’s) voice was not heard; my voice was not heard. Hear my voice today and hear her voice today.
“I respectfully ask you, judge, to sentence C.J. Bollinger to a term not less than the five years my daughter was locked in silence, confined by fear and isolated by the walls that he forced her to build,” she added.
The Livingston Daily does not identify complainants of sexual abuse or their family members.
Contact Livingston Daily justice reporter Lisa Roose-Church at 517-552-2846 or lrchurch@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LisaRooseChurch.