The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed the 119-month prison sentence Kellie Ann Lundon-Cormican was given last March for having sexual relations with a 14-year-old boy in Crookston. The unpublished opinion of the three-judge panel was filed Tuesday.
Lundon-Cormican, 40, offered an open plea to five counts of third-degree sexual conduct in December 2008, taking the chance that the judge would follow her attorney's recommendation for a downward dispositional departure from sentencing guidelines based on her amenability to probation, allowing her to avoid prison time by imposing stayed sentences and probation. Ninth District Judge Michael Kraker, however, denied this request and instead imposed the executed prison sentences.
Her attorney, Earl P. Gray, filed the appeal in April, contending that the district court abused its discretion by denying her motion for the departure and imposing an “unreasonable, excessive and unjustifiably disparate sentence.” Polk County Attorney Greg Widseth and Attorney General Lori Swanson argued the case on behalf of the state.
The opinion states that the decision to depart from guidelines is at the district court's discretion, and because there was “insufficient reason to conclude that the district court abused its discretion,” the appeals court would not reverse the decision.
Gray also asked the appellate court to reduce Lundon-Cormican's sentence to 60 months, claiming that her overall sentence is unfair and excessive considering the circumstances of the offenses and that this kind of sexual abuse is most often resolved without prison time. The appeal asserted that “the harm incurred by the victim was 'not more serious than the harm that typically results from this sexual abuse that occurred here.'”
The appellate court disagreed with this contention and instead agreed with the district court's conclusion that Lundon-Cormican's actions in this case had an extreme long-lasting negative impact on the victim.
The appeal also claimed that the sentence is disproportionate compared to similar crimes and sentences. Records indicate, however, that nearly all offenders convicted of the same crime as Lundon-Cormican were also sentenced within the presumptive guidelines, the opinion says.
The case against Lundon-Cormican came about in December 2007 after her husband called the police department and reported the sexual relationship. In a taped interview with law enforcement officers shortly after, Lundon-Cormican admitted to the relationship and said the sexual acts included both intercourse and performing oral sex on the boy and took place from August through November 2007 in her home and a vehicle. She was acquainted with the boy and his family and he was hired to do some work around her home. She was 38 and he was 14 at the time.
