Judge sentences sex abuse convict

The Western News

District Court Judge Michael Prezeau will not let a man convicted of incest out of prison until he has served at least 18 years of his 50-year sentence.

In what was Prezeau’s first time limiting parole eligibility, except in regards to requiring rehabilitation programs, Prezeau said Fred Goodenough, 65, will not see outside the prison walls until his “newborn daughter and her young sisters will presumably be out of the home.”

Goodenough was found guilty Oct. 2 last year of five charges relating to the abuse of two of his granddaughters.

Goodenough was arrested in 2007 in Oregon after his granddaughters told police of being molested by Goodenough through the years while they lived in California and when they moved to Libby. One of the granddaughters claimed the abuse stopped only when Goodenough got a girlfriend who was in her early 20s.  

During the trial, the prosecution listed a half-dozen of Goodenough’s descendants that are alleged victims of his sexual abuse. Goodenough only admits to molesting his stepdaughter, a woman he impregnated twice when she was 16 and 17 years old when he was in his late 30s. 

Prezeau wrote a scathing statement listing reasons why Goodenough will not be eligible for parole for almost two decades, including his denial of all allegations, which, if they are all to be believed, means he was an “active pedophile for more than 40 years.” Prezeau stated concern for Goodenough’s new generation of potential victims, his three children under the age of 3. His 26-year-old wife gave birth to their third child only one month before the sentencing.

Prezeau’s sentence was in line with a pre-sentence report prepared by probation officer George Clough and with the findings and recommendations of a psycho-sexual evaluation performed by Dr. James Myers.