Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1999 | 10:41 a.m.
After six Texas boys testified Monday in a closed court session about molestations they endured from Larry Wisenbaker, the burley defendant decided to call it quits.
Just two hours before jury selection was to begin in his sexual misconduct trial involving 16 other boys from St. Jude's Ranch in Boulder City, Wisenbaker accepted a plea bargain that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
As District Judge Kathy Hardcastle asked how he pleaded to the first count of sexual assault of a minor under the age of 14, Wisenbaker broke into sobs as he meekly responded, "Guilty."
He continued to cry as he answered identical questions involving two other charges about sexually assaulting minors, three counts of lewdness with minors and a single count of open and gross lewdness.
Sentencing is set for Jan. 19. The lightest sentence could result in Wisenbaker being eligible for parole in 20 years. The harshest sentence would require the 35-year-old man to serve 90 years before parole would be an option.
Deputy District Attorney Gerald Gardner said he believes the eventual sentence will keep Wisenbaker behind bars for the rest of his life.
"At sentencing we intend to show that these were not opportunistic acts but that Wisenbaker devoted his life to entrapping and sexually molesting children," Gardner said. "There's no doubt in my mind he's a sexual predator."
When Wisenbaker made his decision to take a plea bargain rather than stand trial, there was still one Texas boy still scheduled to tell his story about Wisenbaker's activities at youth facilities in that state before he arrived in Southern Nevada.
While Wisenbaker's misconduct with the Texas boys wasn't part of the Nevada criminal case, Hardcastle was considering whether to allow the stories as testimony to demonstrate the defendant's long-term pattern of behavior.
One court official who witnessed the testimony during two days of hearings closed to the public termed it "compelling."
Wisenbaker knew there also would be a parade of 16 boys from St. Jude's Ranch to testify against him about the misconduct he admitted to in his guilty plea.
Gardner said Wisenbaker "developed devious plans and had a methodology to get kids to trust and like him and to quietly submit to whatever he did to them."
The prosecutor said he believes Wisenbaker waited until the last possible moment to plead guilty because "he was unable to admit until now what he did."
"I don't think he's afraid of prison. He just couldn't admit to the world what he was," Gardner said. "He held himself out to be a person who helped kids."
Deputy District Attorney Joseph Abood said Wisenbaker is still a person who helps kids and "not the monster the state says he is."
"By and large, Larry's a good man," Abood said. "He has devoted the last decade to helping kids. The vast majority of them look up to and respect him."
He noted that part of Wisenbaker's motivation for pleading guilty was to spare the children from testifying in the stressful arena of court.
"He had a genuine affection for these kids," Abood said.
But according to the charges and Wisenbaker's guilty plea, that affection sometimes crossed the line into fondling and oral sex.
While Abood conceded that Wisenbaker victimized some of the St. Jude's Ranch boys, there remained questions about some of the charges. He said he doubted the prosecution could prove all of the allegations at trial.
But there was a ring of consistency to the stories from the boys in both Nevada and Texas.
They all told of a person in authority who used his power, position and size to brazenly fondle or sexually assault them, even if they protested.
"I know you're going to feel guilty, but you'll get over it," Wisenbaker was quoted by a 14-year-old boy.
Of the 16 St. Jude's Ranch victims, 12 were residents there and four were Boulder City boys who were visiting.
Gardner said Wisenbaker hosted late night movie sessions that let the boys stay up so late "it became easier to molest them once they had fallen asleep or were too tired to fully appreciate what he was doing."
Gardner said that Wisenbaker claimed the Nevada allegations are part of a conspiracy by the boys at St. Jude's Ranch to get him fired because he was too strict.
The oldest victim was 16 while the youngest was 9.
While Gardner had the responsibility for prosecuting Wisenbaker, he said it is a job that never should have been necessary.
He noted that allegations of sexual misconduct by Wisenbaker at the West Texas Boys Ranch in San Angelo, Texas, were reported to police there more than a year before the allegations surfaced in Boulder City. But Texas authorities did not pursue criminal charges against Wisenbaker after he left town.
Had there been charges filed and a warrant issued, the molestation of 16 boys at St. Jude's Ranch might not have occurred.
St. Jude's Ranch officials said that a background investigation of Wisenbaker would have revealed the Texas charges had they been filed and prevented his employment.
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