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Former youth services worker sentenced to more than 200 years for child sexual abuse

Tulsa World - 2/1/2017

A Tulsa man was sentenced Tuesday to more than 200 years imprisonment for sexually abusing five boys he met through church and while doing volunteer work for a local Department of Human Services shelter.

A jury found Timothy Shawn Cato, 52, guilty on Nov. 10 on 11 counts of child sexual abuse committed against the boys between October 2009 and his arrest in October 2014.

In upholding the jury's sentencing recommendations, District Judge William LaFortune said he agreed with prosecutors' claims that Cato has consistently tried to minimize, justify or otherwise rationalize his actions against the boys, who were ages 7 to 17.

The jury acquitted Cato on one count each of child sexual abuse and manufacture, distribution or sale of child pornography.

Jurors recommended he serve 25 years for each of six counts of child sexual abuse involving a victim younger than 12, as well as a combined 65 years for similar charges related to teenage boys. LaFortune ordered the terms to run consecutively.

A probable cause affidavit detailed more than 20 years of work Cato had done with children through various churches and summer camps.

"There appears to be a pattern of behavior," LaFortune said, noting that it "was very telling to the court" that Cato repeatedly put himself in a position to work in areas "where the most vulnerable young boys were found."

Two teenage boys said they met Cato in his work with Eastland Assembly of God, while two younger boys told authorities they knew him as a volunteer at the Laura Dester Shelter, where they lived at the time. Cato was also a teaching assistant at Town & Country School in Tulsa at the time of his arrest, and additionally worked with a company that had contracts with the Developmental Disabilities Services Division at the DHS.

Testimony from the boys indicated he would bathe them at his home, provide them underwear and sleep next to them while touching them inappropriately. The younger boys said Cato would check them out of the Laura Dester Shelter for weekends so they could stay with him, which is when they said the assaults occurred. Court records indicate Cato admitted to police that he sexually assaulted a then-15-year-old boy.

Assistant District Attorney Andrea Brown argued for LaFortune not to run the sentences concurrently, saying Cato "deserves every single day" of every year the jury recommended.

Cato did not address the court before his sentencing.

"It was a physically and emotionally demanding two weeks (of trial) for everybody involved, but it was certainly worth it," Brown said after the hearing. "Mr. Cato first denied any kind of inappropriate contact with children. Ultimately, after a lengthy interview, he sort of admitted that he had some inappropriate sexual contact with one of the five children that we had alleged he had touched.

"He continued to minimize and justify his behavior, including 'bizarre,' as Judge LaFortune put it, behavior in the bathroom and in the shower and while sleeping. I think that contributed significantly to Judge LaFortune's decision to run all the counts each after the other in accordance with the jury's carefully thought-out verdicts."

Assistant Public Defender Travis Smith asked the court to impose concurrent sentences, noting that four people provided letters in support of Cato, who had no previous significant contact with police in the past.

"I'm slightly disappointed in Judge LaFortune's decision today regarding giving consecutive time instead of concurrent time," Smith said. "We will begin the process this afternoon of appealing the case."