ALTUS - A former Altus doctor who allegedly molested a young Jackson County girl in 1997 has been sentenced to a year in the Jackson County Jail.
Michael J. Butt, 50, of 328 Point Bluff Drive in Decatur, Ill., entered a plea of no contest June 2 to three counts of lewd exhibition of person stemming from at least three incidents in 1997 when Butt allegedly fondled a 7- or 8-year-old girl who was a friend of his daughter at the time.
He was sentenced to seven years in the state Department of Corrections on each of the three charges, with all but the first year suspended. The sentences are to run concurrently, meaning that he will spend only one year in the Jackson County Jail in lieu of prison.
Butt must also pay fines and fees totaling $11,470.51 and complete two years of supervised probation as well as register as a sex offender.
In January 1997, Butt was charged with sexual battery on a 17-year-old female patient whom he was accused of touching without her consent in November 1996. In August 1998 he pleaded no contest to the charge and his state medical license was suspended for two years. He was given a suspended two-year sentence and ordered to pay $5,160 in fine and costs.
A month after his arrest for sexual battery, Butt's wife, Karol Butt, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in the couple's home. The medical examiner confirmed that the gun was inside the victim's mouth when the trigger was pulled.
Butt, who was free on a $10,000 bond, and the couple's three children were at home at the time of the shooting. No signs of burglary or robbery were found, neither was a suicide note ever recovered. Butt was never charged with the crime.
According to an affidavit filed in District Court, the girl who was a friend of Butt's daughter in 1997 told a police detective June 3, 2005, that while she and Butt's daughter were upstairs playing at the Butts' home, he would come into the room and ask her to go into the living room and sit on the couch, where he allegedly fondled her while sexually gratifying himself.
On one occasion, the girl said, Butt exposed himself to her while he was using the restroom.
Butt was arrested Dec. 7, 2005, in Decatur by the Macon County Sheriff's Department and brought to Altus on Dec. 20, 2005. He was originally charged with three counts of lewd molestation and one count of lewd exhibition of person.
The crime of lewd exhibition of person, a felony, is punishable by a fine of $500 to $20,000 or imprisonment for 30 days to 10 years, or both.
Butt was defended in the case by Altus attorney Glen Dresback.
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