A former Fall River County Sheriff’s deputy is appealing the length of his federal sentence to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Francis James Kistler of Box Elder was sentenced in February this year to 25 years in prison for sexually exploiting two underage girls in 2019.
His appeal was heard in Saint Paul on Thursday, Oct. 20.
Molly Quinn represented Francis Kistler at oral arguments. She said 25 years is excessive considering that Kistler was 61 years old at the time of sentencing. And she cited other issues.
“He did present with significant health issues,” she said. “He had actually lost a leg due to amputation while this case was pending.”
Quinn noted that Kistler became aware of mental health problems while this case was ongoing and sought treatment.
She told appellate judges, “It was those things that he did on pretrial release that helped him start to appreciate the true nature of what happened here and what his conduct was.”
Quinn said Kistler should be credited with agreeing to plead guilty, thereby sparing the victims the trauma of testifying at trial.
The prosecution was represented by Kevin Koliner, appellate chief for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota. He agreed that the plea agreement spared victims from having to testify. But he said the details warrant a strict sentence.
“This was a case in which a deputy sheriff had sent 200 videos of himself masturbating to 16-year-old and 13-year-old girls,” he said.
Koliner said Kistler gave alcohol to the 13-year-old and listed other offenses: “Explicit comments that were made in the text messages; the use of his law enforcement position to coerce these children into sending nude photos.”
Chief Judge Lavenski Smith interjected, “Counsel, you’re stating some very good reasons why those counts might not… reasons why you perhaps should have reconsidered dismissing.”
Koliner replied that the sentencing judge was aware of all of these factors and wasn’t bound to follow the government’s lighter recommendation. And he noted that if the prosecutor had reneged on the plea agreement, Kistler would have had a stronger case for an appeal.
The Eighth Circuit will deliberate and issue its decision at a later date.
