Judge gives IM man longer prison term for child abuse
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IRON MOUNTAIN -- An Iron Mountain Man will spend 40 months to 10 years in prison for striking his 23-month-old son repeatedly with a plastic dusting tool over a two-hour period in 2023, leaving the child with injuries that put him in the hospital.
Dickinson County Circuit Judge Mary Barglind exceeded the sentencing recommendations for Jeffery William Ireton, who a jury found guilty of child abuse-second degree after a four-day trial in October. Ireton originally faced child abuse-first degree before the jury convicted him on the lesser charge.
During the trial, the 33-year-old Ireton said he had become frustrated with his son's disobedience and misbehavior and the time had come to do something about it.
The child's mother testified that on the afternoon of April 18, 2023, she dropped her son off at the Caring House, the designated exchange location. Though happy when he left her, the boy was shaking, grinding his teeth and had welts on the back of his legs when she picked him up hours later, she said.
The boy was initially treated and released at Marshfield Medical Center-Dickinson, then brought back the next day after his urine turned green. He would be hospitalized for four days.
Acting as his own attorney in Dickinson County Circuit Court, Ireton frequently stated he was within his legal right to discipline his own child. Ireton often quoted Bible verses, including Proverbs 13:24, "Those who spare the rod hate their children, but those who love them are diligent to discipline them."
At his sentencing Tuesday, Ireton stated that physical discipline is explicitly authorized by law and that it is not physical discipline if it does not hurt. Ireton went on to say the Bible commanded him to do it and he was exercising his freedom of religion.
Ireton accused Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristin Kass of dishonesty and said Judge Barglind should be ashamed of herself for allowing it.
He also said half of him wished the worst sort of evil for everyone in the courtroom and the other half wanted to forgive them.
Ireton's pre-sentencing report called for 12 to 24 months in prison. Kass said that due to the nature of the crime she was asking Barglind to go with the higher end of the range.
"He maintained that he was justified; he weaponized the Bible for his crime," Kass said. "Child abuse at any level is unwarranted. Child abuse at this level is simply inexcusable and it must be punished by the maximum the guideline range allowed."
But Barglind went well beyond that, sentencing Ireton to 40 months to 10 years.
Barglind stated that courts are not bound by sentencing guidelines -- they are only advisory -- and that any sentence must be "proportionate to the seriousness of the circumstances surrounding the offense and the offender."
"In this case, because of the serious nature of this offense, the length of time the beatings went on, the extreme bruising and swelling that occurred to this 23-month-old child, the lack of remorse on the part of Mr. Ireton, the lack of true understanding or recognition of his wrong, the premeditation and lack of potential for rehabilitation -- all justify the court exceeding sentencing guidelines," Barglind said.
Ireton received credit for 263 days already served awaiting trial.