A Belle Plaine man serving 30 years in prison for child porn possession and several drug-related felonies lost a bid Thursday to have his sentence reduced.
Dale R. Radder, 42, was sentenced in August 2013 after pleading no contest to 213 counts of possessing child pornography, as well as manufacture and delivery of marijuana, maintaining a drug trafficking place and felony marijuana possession.
He will also have to serve another 25 years’ extended supervision when his prison sentence is over.
At a hearing in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court on Thursday, Radder’s attorney, Leonard Kachinsky, argued the 30-year prison sentence was excessive in comparison to other sentences handed down for child porn possession in Shawano and surrounding counties.
The court heard testimony from a private detective hired by the defense to review sentencings in similar cases and a forensic psychologist who testified that the likelihood of re-offending in child porn cases is “very low.”
District Attorney Greg Parker grilled both witnesses at length, criticizing the private detective’s findings for not taking into account extenuating circumstances in the other cases, and the psychologist for not considering the volume and types of child porn found on Radder’s computer, some of which he had been collecting since 2003.
Shawano County Sheriff’s Detective Chris Gamm testified there were more than 5,000 photos and 200 videos, including those depicting children as young as 18 months old being sexually assaulted and, in one instance, having sexual contact with a dog.
Gamm said Radder used some of the material to cut together his own video, set to the music of The Grateful Dead.
Also testifying by phone for the state was the Department of Corrections agent who completed a pre-sentence investigation in the case.
The DOC had recommended that Radder be sentenced to three times what was ultimately agreed to in the plea deal.
Judge William Kussel Jr. rejected Kachinsky’s request to cut Radder’s sentence in half, to no more than 15 years.
Kussel cited the volume of porn found, the ages of the victims and the content that included bestiality, sado-masochism and pain being inflicted on children.
“In my opinion, justice has been served in this case,” Parker said after the hearing. “This man is still a danger to the community. I think to keep this community safe, he should serve every bit of his 30-year sentence.”
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