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Rapist gets eight years in prison By DANI DODGE It may have taken several years, but justice finally caught up with Victor William Geer Monday morning. Geer, 41, took off three years ago before he could be sentenced for raping and sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl. The FBI caught up with him recently in Arkansas and he was brought back. Monday morning, Judge Ray White sentenced Geer to seven years and one month for the rape and sexual abuse. He got another 11 months for absconding. "This is one of those situations where you see an older man taking advantage of a younger woman using alcohol," White said. "It certainly is reprehensible." The victim's family, but not the victim, attended the sentencing Monday. They said they were satisfied when they saw the lanky, strawberry-blond man with the handlebar mustache led away by deputies for a long prison term. "I'm glad he's going to get what he deserves," the victim's mother said. The victim's grandmother agreed: "At least it won't happen to anyone else." The crime occurred near the end of the school year in 1996. The victim and her 12-year-old friend were walking down Jacksonville Highway when a car pulled up next to them. They knew the boy in the car, but did not know Geer, who was driving. The boy, who was only two years older than the girls, offered the them a ride and they accepted. Geer told the girls he needed to run an errand and then he'd drop them off wherever they wanted. He drove them to the Applegate, to a cabin on a dead-end road. There, Geer gave the girls alcohol. And then he took the intoxicated 13-year-old up the stairs and raped her. She didn't reveal what occurred to her and swore her friend to secrecy. But after a year, the 12-year-old became concerned for her friend and told her family. A doctor's examination presented at the trial, as well as the girl's own diary, corroborated the story. The jury found Geer guilty of second-degree rape, two counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. Geer declined any comment at his sentencing. Geer's attorney, Andy Vandergaw, pointed out that Geer had been promoted to foreman of his painting crew in Arkansas and also had stayed out of trouble while on the lam. But prosecutor Judith Harper noted that the girl will suffer a lifetime for what he did - and being on his best behavior while hiding out doesn't excuse anything. "Now she's an adult and married and has a child," said Harper. "But her first sexual encounter will always be that horrible one. "He took advantage in the most horrendous way." Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.