The first thing Kim Gosen did after Thursday’s court hearing was to rush to her pickup truck in the Mower County Courthouse parking lot, light a cigarette and talk about the sentencing.

Friday, April 07, 2000

The first thing Kim Gosen did after Thursday’s court hearing was to rush to her pickup truck in the Mower County Courthouse parking lot, light a cigarette and talk about the sentencing.

"I think he got off real easy," she said in the parking lot. "but not as easy as he thought it would be."

Gosen, a 30-something woman, now lives in Stacyville, Iowa. She is divorced and the mother of two girls, 14 and 7, and a 3-year-old son, the child who witnessed the attack on his mother last September.

She has another job and a boyfriend: the only male, she said, whom she now trusts.

She consented to the use of her name with this story.

While the perpetrator of the crimes was allowed to plead guilty to reduced charges and while the prosecutor believes the case was "way overcharged," Gosen stands by her story of a harrowing experience in which she was sexually attacked.

She moved into the house owned by Mr. and Mrs. Ernest L. Kirkpatrick in Dexter on Aug. 26. The attack occurred 12 days later.

"I rented the home from his wife and that’s the only person I saw until he came over that day," she said.

"I’m not out to wreck his life, but just to point out that he can’t control other people’s lives," she said.

She was accompanied in court by a female friend Thursday and said she was "very nervous."

"They (the crime victim’s advocate) wanted me to write a statement and then read it in court, but I was too nervous to do that. I just decided to say something," she said.

"I don’t think I trust any males anymore other than by boyfriend," she said. "It’s hard to trust anyone after something like that."

A restitution hearing will be held to determine the amount that Kirkpatrick must pay Gosen.

"It’s only $1,226 and it’s just for the deposit and the rent and having to find another place and move again so soon," she said. "I had to take the kids out of one school and put them in another.

"I had to start all over and find a job and it’s only a part-time job at that. I was divorced and starting over when I moved to Dexter and now I’m starting over again because of him.

"I’m still mad that he thought he could get out of everything and that nothing would happen to him for what he did. He violated me as a tenant and as a person. That’s what he did."