Babysitter gets 9 years for attack

Judge Rebekka Stumme offered no leniency Friday, Aug. 9 when she sentenced a 41-year-old Cloquet man to nine years in prison for cornering and attempting to assault a 12-year-old relative who was under his care.

“You, sir, are the farthest things from amenable to treatment,” Stumme said in Sixth District Court in Carlton, denying Tony Allen Gohl’s plea for a lesser sentence.

Now twice convicted of violent sexual encounters, Gohl received a “top of the box” sentence, based on state guidelines. The 108-month sentence followed Gohl’s jury conviction June 7 in District Court in Carlton on four felony counts related to an Oct. 21, 2023 assault.

The sentencing in a fourth-floor courtroom featured victim impact statements from the girl’s mother and father, who also read a statement from the girl. In it, the victim thanked the court for giving her a safe place to tell people what happened.

“Now, most of the time, I am just a normal kid,” the girl’s statement said. “(But) when I think about him, all I can think about is that day.”

In their statements to the court, the family urged the longest possible sentence, saying they wanted Gohl to be in prison until the victim reached adulthood. The victim professed to having nightmares and constantly checking locks on doors.

“It’s hard to find a way to tell you what happened and the effects on me,” the girl wrote.

Gohl had been babysitting the girl and her younger sibling when he cornered the victim in a bathroom and shut the door. He exposed his private parts to the victim and sternly demanded sexual acts, even pushing the girl to the floor to prevent her from leaving. “But for” the girl’s bravery and courage in standing up to Gohl, Stumme said, the judge was convinced Gohl would have carried through with a rape.

“I have no doubt you would have continued on in the bathroom and completed the crime,” Stumme said.

Gohl’s sentencing on “attempted criminal sexual conduct — first degree — penetration or contact under 14 — actor greater than 36 months older” superseded the three other felony charges, which were set aside by the judge but remain “noted” in his lengthy criminal history.

Gohl appeared in court wearing shackles and orange coveralls. He’d been housed in Carlton County Jail for 288 days since his arrest Oct. 27, 2023. The slender Gohl featured a ponytail and beard and alternately appeared defiant and remorseful. Sometimes removing his glasses to sob, he later yelled angrily on his way out of the courtroom, saying, “I spoke the truth” — his last words on the record before being taken to state prison.

Chief deputy Carlton County attorney Jeffrey Boucher pushed for the harshest possible sentence, citing “aggravating” factors, including the kidnapping behind closed doors and violently pushing down the child.

“She could not leave without his acquiescence,” Boucher said, calling it “more serious than your average criminal sexual conduct.”

This marked Gohl’s second conviction on sexual violence charges. When he was 20, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and criminal sexual misconduct of an ex-girlfriend in Warba, Minnesota. In that case, Gohl admitted to following his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and flashing his lights to get her to pull over. She later tried to flee when he drove her to a gravel pit, so he shot a 12-gauge shotgun in her direction and admitted to hitting her with the barrel of the gun until she fell to the ground, according to a story written by the Mesabi Tribune at the time.

He then raped her and coerced her to perform other sexual acts. Police found a bag in his car containing a knife, a crowbar, ammunition, a screwdriver and duct tape.

The Itasca County Attorney’s Office requested an 18-year sentence in that case, an upwards departure due to the aggravating factors of the attack, according to the Mesabi Tribune. Gohl ended up fulfilling that sentence. He has also been convicted previously of motor vehicle theft, driving while intoxicated, felony domestic violence and fifth-degree assault.

During his sentencing, it was revealed in court that Gohl had previously participated in some form of sex crime rehabilitation.

In his statement to the court, Gohl reflected on the victim’s birth and credited holding her as a baby to helping give meaning to his own life.

“I am so ashamed of myself for not being the protector I wished to be,” he said. “I can never forgive myself for the harm that I’ve caused. I am so sorry, so very sorry. I love you all so very much.”

Alternately, he argued he should be sentenced for what he did do and not what he didn’t, appealing for a shorter sentence at the open campus of the Northeast Regional Corrections Center in Saginaw.

The victim’s family members consoled one another in the court’s wooden bleachers as he spoke.

The judge said she also received two letters on Gohl’s behalf requesting a lighter sentence.

She was not swayed, ruling that Gohl would be sent to state prison until after the victim reached adulthood and could “feel safe and be able to let it go.”

The victim’s family members told the court about the guilt they felt as well as the “impossible fields of emotions” they’ve endured since the girl first reported the crime to her mother in the days after it occurred.

The victim’s father said his inability to prevent the crime made him feel like a failure as a father, while his inability to fix the aftermath made him feel like a failure as a man. He called Gohl evil and the most dangerous type of person in society. The victim’s mother said strong enough words didn’t exist for what she felt. Her heart was shattered, she said, and life flipped upside down. She described once looking up to Gohl and coming to his defense after his earlier conviction.

“I can’t undo what has happened to her,” she said, asking the court to give her daughter time to heal and show that Gohl will be held accountable.

Stumme comforted the family, saying they listened to their daughter, believed her and are getting her the help she needs.

“It is my hope that you stop feeling guilty, because it isn’t your fault,” she said, noting the ripples a crime like Gohl’s can have on a family.

“(We) can see the ripples in the courtroom today,” the judge said.

Guilty plea in assault case

In another hearing Aug. 9 in District Court in Carlton, a 38-year-old Carlton man agreed to a guilty plea in exchange for a more merciful sentence resulting from a violent attack earlier this year.

Jacob Robert Clarin faced a felony charge of first-degree assault — great bodily harm, for attacking another resident on Feb. 21 at the Lake Venoah Board and Lodge outside Carlton, in Twin Lakes Township.

At the time of the attack, authorities found a victim who’d been struck several times with a makeshift instrument, which Clarin described in court as “my ice pick” — a railroad spike taped to a broom handle.

The bloody attack left the male victim with gashes about the head, including one blow above an eyebrow that required 40 stitches.

Attorneys from Carlton County and Clarin’s public defender agreed to recommend 94 months in prison, or 7 years, 8 months, in exchange for the guilty plea. A sentencing hearing was pending with Judge Stumme ordering a presentence investigation.

Clarin faced more than 17 years in prison if he’d gone to trial and been convicted.

Clarin appeared in court wearing blue jail coveralls. He told the judge he’d been adhering to a regimen of mental health medications, which were “helping me stay calmer,” he said.

“It is not OK to just go whack someone,” Clarin said. “I do feel remorseful and would take it all back if I could. I’m going to have to do a sentence this time to make up for what I did.”

Clarin has a previous misdemeanor assault conviction, as well as convictions for driving under the influence, petty theft, and obstructing legal process.

He’d been at Lake Venoah for three years, he told the judge, fishing every day and enjoying the seclusion of life in the woods, near a lake.

“I’m a vulnerable adult and they’re supposed to protect me and keep me safe,” Clarin said, later expressing concern about his well-being in prison.

“I just want to be safe,” he said.

Stumme accepted the guilty plea, and an amended charge — first-degree assault down from attempted murder. She assured Clarin he’d get credit for every day served in county jail since February, and appreciated that Clarin expressed wanting future treatment programming.

“Not everybody thinks that far ahead,” she said.

Lake Venoah Board and Lodge describes itself on social media as “offering supportive services for adult men with alcohol and drug addictions.”