Vollhaber sentenced for rape, attacking victim's father

An Evergreen man who was ordered to pay $1.126 million for his sexual relationship with a neighbor girl wasn't able to do that, but he is headed to prison.

John Vollhaber, 54, was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years with 20 suspended for sexual intercourse without consent. He was also sentenced to 20 years with 10 suspended for attacking the girl's father with a weapon.

District Judge Stewart Stadler said Vollhaber showed "blatant disregard" for court orders the girl's family obtained to keep him away from their daughter, beginning when she was 14. Besides having sex with the girl, Vollhaber gave her drugs and lied, Stadler said.

The judge said he believes Vollhaber lied again in his testimony Wednesday when he responded to the charge of assault with a weapon.

Vollhaber was arrested in a camouflage jacket with a loaded handgun, a stun gun he fired three times at the girl's father, a police scanner and a knife. Sheriff's deputies believed that Vollhaber ambushed the father in his garage, intending to kill him.

Vollhaber denied any sinister intent during that confrontation. He said he had planned to turn himself into authorities and wanted first to talk to the girl's father.

"I wanted to talk to [him] about my love for his daughter … It was the last thing I thought I could do for her," Vollhaber testified.

The gun was not loaded when he showed it to the man, Vollhaber said. He fired the stun gun to "calm down" the father when he began yelling, he said.

Prosecuting Deputy County Attorney Tim Wenz quizzed Vollhaber about why he would take weapons if he planned only a discussion.

Vollhaber said he was traveling in the dark, had been threatened in the neighborhood, was living in a tent in the woods and was distraught, and wild dogs had attacked him a couple of nights before in the neighborhood.

"Mr. Vollhaber, this testimony is not only not credible, it is incredible," Stadler said. He compared Vollhaber's weaponry to someone "armed like they're walking around Iraq."

Stadler heard testimony from the girl and her parents who testified about what Vollhaber did to their lives.

"It's like dropping a bomb on my family," the father said. "At first, I was shell shocked and in disbelief that he would even think of doing what he's done to my family and my daughter."

Vollhaber was manipulative and calculating, he said.

He gave the girl drugs and used a shiny Corvette "as a carrot if she'd run away with him."

It was after Vollhaber attacked her father that the spell was broken, the girl testified.

"He had me very tied around his finger … Every lie was to benefit him so he wouldn't go to jail. He was taking me away from the family I grew up with … I was so brainwashed.

"The night he attacked my parents, something snapped inside of me," she said. She decided, "OK, I'm going to tell the truth now."

After lengthy treatment that has emptied her family's bank accounts, she said she is doing all right. But she thinks Vollhaber should spend 10 to 15 years in prison - sentences recommended by a probation officer and her mother, respectively.

Vollhaber's attorney for the assault charge, David Stufft, argued that Vollhaber was "in a place where he shouldn't have been" and "nothing went right."

An evaluation shows that Vollhaber is at low risk of committing another sexual crime.

Vollhaber apologized to the family in court, saying they have no reason to fear him.

Attorney Ed Falla, representing Vollhaber on the rape charge, said that he has no prior criminal history and worked productively for many years as a nurse.

"There is a lot of merit to him and his life prior to these events," Falla said.

The attorneys and Vollhaber asked for a five-year commitment to the Department of Corrections, which could mean that Vollhaber would not necessarily go to prison.

Instead, Stadler imposed the sentence recommended by Wenz, who said, "I think this family needs to have some sense of safety."

The sentence amounts to 60 years with 30 suspended. Vollhaber must complete sex-offender treatment before he's released from prison and may never live in the same county as the victim or her family.

"Since 2001, you have been an almost unimaginable predator," Stadler told Vollhaber. "It's a tragedy what you did."

In December 2003, the girl's family was awarded $1,126 million in damages from Vollhaber. He has declared bankruptcy and lists his net worth as zero.