The New York man who helped Dane County investigators arrest and convict “mall rapist” James Perry of Stoughton was sentenced to 15 years in jail for child pornography charges.
Thomas Redeker, 56, pled guilty in an upstate New York courtroom to the sexual assault of two young girls, and a judge accepted a plea bargain worked out for his assistance in apprehending the worst sexual offender in recent Dane County history.
Perry, 34, has been charged with 48 counts of misconduct and is currently serving his more than 350-year sentence in a Kansas prison.
Redeker could have been given life in jail for the crimes.
Redeker told authorities he met Perry in an online chatroom and later traveled to Madison to assault and film the children.
The Associated Press reported Madison U.S. Assistant Attorney Thomas Walsh said that over his entire career in the court system, he has never seen something like the Perry case. He added the video contains the “most disturbing stuff you will ever see,” the Associated Press also reported.
Walsh said the 15-year sentence for Redeker may seem misleading for the crime committed, but he admitted that the New Yorker “directly” led to Perry’s arrest, the Associated Press said.
David Schultz, assistant dean and law professor at the University of Wisconsin, said it is common for departments to work together and reduce sentences for information in a connected case.
“It is not unusual to give [someone] some consideration if he helps authorities with other cases,” Schultz said.
Brad Stadler, a UW senior and brand representative at Abercrombie and Fitch in Madison’s West Towne Mall — one of the locations where Perry made his assaults — said the arrest of his partner will bring some closure to the victims and the community.
“I think it closes a chapter,” Stadler said, adding there may never be closure for some and the threat for sexual offenders still remains.
Though Stadler said the crimes were horrible, he said the sentence should have been reduced as it was because he did help apprehend Perry.
“I think that’s fair because they really [needed his help],” Stadler said of the judge giving him 15 years. “But, 15 years, there’s going to be a lesson learned.”
Stadler said he remembered when sketches of Perry were posted around in hopes to identify the mall rapist. He added some precautions were taken at his store so no one would be left alone and to limit the chance of an attack.
Redeker is from Hancock, N.Y., a town with a population of 1,500 people about 10 miles away from Catskill State Park and nearly 150 miles northwest of New York City.
