2008 Woodie Awards
Former BVU student sentenced to jail
Rachel Becker
Issue date: 8/29/08 Section: News
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Payne was arrested in February and pleaded guilty in June to the invasion of privacy charges and the second degree attempted burglary charge.
The events that warranted these charges occurred in 2007 when Payne was a resident advisor at BVU.
During this time, he secretly photographed a young woman's breasts.
Payne was given 360 days, with 180 days suspended from each invasion of privacy charge.
An invasion of privacy charge is a serious misdemeanor.
He will spend approximately six months in the county jail because the two charges are expected to be concurrent.
Payne was also given one year of probation for each invasion of privacy charge.
On the felony charge of second degree attempted burglary, he received an unspecified prison term that is to be no more than five years, with incarceration suspended. He will be on probation for three years.
Because of a newly added portion of Iowa law that deals with sexually based crimes, Payne was given an additional ten years of parole, which will begin at the end of his regular term of probation.
His crime does not require him to register as a sex offender in the state of Iowa.
"This will be something that will stick with me forever," the victim said to the court in a prepared statement. "The thing that hurts me the most is that you are the only one who truly knows what happened that night."
The victim's mother, who also addressed the court, said that this event has caused a great deal of emotional damage to her daughter and has made it hard for her to trust others.
"You need to be punished for what you have done to my daughter," she said. "We do not care about your self-inflicted suffering. You reap what you sow."
Saying that Payne has narcistic tendencies because of what is written on his blog, Buena Vista County Attorney Dave Patton asked the court to sentence Payne to prison.
Patton said that Payne believes that the case is all about himself.
F. Montgomery Brown, who served as Payne's attorney, asked for a deferment because of the Blogosphere's attitude toward Payne.
He said that Payne attracted attention to himself, but his hypocrisy is not a crime.
Payne apologized to the victim and her family, saying that he would make changes in his life to make sure that something like this never happened again.
Judge Courtney, saying that his decision would not please anyone, sentenced him to jail instead of prison because of his age and lack of a criminal record.
His probation requires him to follow the directions of the correctional team and to continue his counseling and therapy.
"I am not happy or unhappy," Mark Kirkholm, director of campus security, said. "There were really no winners in this case."
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