A maximum penalty of sixty years imprisonment is possible for a Laramie man facing three counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree.
Corwin Bernard, 22, waived his right to a preliminary hearing, and is being held at the Albany County Detention Center on a $25,000 cash bond. After being formerly convicted in 2011 of accessory before the fact to third degree arson, Bernard faced three to five years in the state penitentiary, with a recommendation for adult community correction (ACC). Bernard’s judge in that case, Jeffery Donnell of the Albany County District Court, seemed skeptical the alternative punishment would reform him.
“I am skeptical, because I don’t really see how it’s going to be any different when you finish there,” Donnell said. “You’ll probably do fine there. I don’t really have any doubt about that. But it’s just as soon as you get out of that structured environment, be it Boot Camp, be it ACC, things seem to not go so well.”
At the arson hearing Bernard said the crime had no sinister motives.
“We were just trying to go out and have fun,” Bernard said.
Bernard was accepted into a program at Community Alternatives of Casper (CAC), and on Oct. 7, 2013 he was released from Albany County Detention Center to go to CAC. He was required to do 30 months of probation after he left the program.
When Bernard was questioned about accusations of a sexual crime on Feb. 20, 2015, he mentioned a minor, a thirteen-year-old student at Laramie Junior High School (LJHS).
The investigation began when police officers arrived at LJHS to assist with transporting the girl, as she had thoughts of harming herself.
After discovering that the girl accessed the Internet without adult supervision against the terms of her probation, authorities found that she was in contact with Bernard. In messages discovered on a tablet in her possession, both the minor and Bernard said they could not wait to “hold and kiss each other again,” according to an affidavit of probable cause.
In an interview with police on February 20, the minor said she and Bernard had sex between three and five times between August and January. She also said that Bernard knew she was thirteen, and they both did not tell anyone of their relationship, knowing that Bernard would get in trouble.
A date for Bernard’s arraignment is pending.
