Moorcroft Man Sentenced To Probation, Community Service For Child Abuse
A Moorcroft man will serve four years probation for child abuse for his involvement with a 14-year-old girl late last year, a Natrona County District Court judge ordered Tuesday.
Chandler Lawrence pleaded guilty in May to an amended criminal information to the abuse charge. He initially had been charged with one count of third-degree sexual assault of a child.
As part of a plea agreement, the District Attorney's office and the Public Defender's Office agreed that he would receive a suspended two- to four-year prison term, serve four years of supervised probation, perform 300 hours of community service, not possess or consume any alcoholic beverages or illegal drugs, and submit to random drug testing.
The girl's father also asked that Lawrence not serve prison time.
District Court Judge Thomas Sullins agreed to the deal between the prosecution and defense, but he didn't like it.
"The court goes along reluctantly with the recommendation," Sullins said.
Unlike the sentencing of Zachary Hammond, who was involved with the same girl, this case did not involve sexual contact, Sullins said.
But the recommendation against incarceration bothered him, he said.
The case began in December when a Natrona County Sheriff's deputy found Chandler with the girl in a pickup by the Casper Events Center.
Chandler told police he met the girl on the badoo.com social network website. Through communication on the website, she told him she was 18.
He drove from Moorcroft to Casper, picked up the girl at her house at midnight, drove around Casper and eventually to the Events Center. They started kissing and petting, but never under each others’ clothes.
The deputy spoke to the girl’s father, who brought in a computer with her page on the badoo.com website and her messages and photos. That’s where law enforcement officers found Lawrence, Hammond and Kyle Stickley, who was sentenced in July.
More From K2 Radio
