MOORHEAD - A 54-year-old Moorhead man accused of molesting two children at his wife's home day care center here pleaded guilty Monday in a negotiated plea deal that calls for him to serve 13 years and four months in state prison.
Jon Ralph Pabody pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for molesting two girls, ages 3 and 7 at the time, at the day care within the past three years.
Speaking softly in a high-pitched voice, Pabody tearfully described the sexual abuse in detail in Clay County District Court. As he spoke about the older victim, her mother sobbed loudly.
Afterward, the mother told The Forum she didn't believe Pabody was remorseful.
"I don't think he's sorry. I don't think you can be sorry for doing something like that," said the woman, who is not being named to protect the identity of her daughter. The Forum typically doesn't identify victims of sexual abuse.
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Asked how her daughter is doing now, the woman said, "She's strong."
"I mean, she's going to have effects, but she's had a good support system and she knows that he was wrong, and she knows that he's the bad guy," she said. "She knows that she didn't do anything wrong, and she still has struggles with it, but she probably will for a while, or forever, I don't know."
The mother said she wanted to avoid a trial to spare her daughter the pain of testifying, saying it wasn't worth it given that the plea agreement calls for only about a year less prison time - with good behavior - than the maximum suggested under state sentencing guidelines. Still, she said she'd have preferred that Pabody serve more than 160 months in prison.
"It's never enough time," she said.
The other victim's mother declined to comment.
Judge Galen Vaa said he will wait to accept Pabody's guilty pleas until he's officially sentenced on Aug. 20. Vaa ordered Pabody held in jail without bail until then.
Assistant Clay County Attorney Pamela Harris said the plea agreement calls for lifetime supervised release for Pabody after prison. She also plans to recommend at sentencing that Vaa make a preliminary finding that Pabody should be civilly committed upon his release from prison.
Pabody had pleaded not guilty to the felony charges during separate hearings in May and June.
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As he admitted to the crimes in court Monday, he kept his composure until Harris asked him if he had any claims of innocence.
"No, I do not," he said, hanging his head and beginning to cry.
Pabody has been in custody since turning himself in to police on March 12, the day before the charge involving the 3-year-old was filed. During his first court appearance, he told the judge, "I have always been law-abiding, and this is the first time I've ever done anything, and this is horrible, but ..."
The home day care at 2709 14th St. S. and an offsite facility, ABC Infant Daycare, also operated by Pabody's wife, have closed.
