Rapist sentenced to 120 years

Richard Gallatin was sentenced Thursday to every possible day in prison he was eligible for in last year’s kidnapping and rape of a Grayslake woman.

Gallatin, 38, was sentenced to a total of 120 years for aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, aggravated robbery and kidnapping by Lake County Associate Judge George Bridges.

A jury found him guilty last month of chasing the woman to her car in the Gurnee Mills parking lot and forcing his way inside, then making her drive to Kane County, where he repeatedly raped her in a church parking lot.

During his trial, Gallatin testified the girl offered to give him a ride from the shopping mall, drove to an automated teller machine and gave him the last $40 in her checking account, then suggested they have sex in the back seat of her Toyota.

Bridges told Gallatin on Thursday that relating his version of the events from the witness stand was a mistake.

“It is clear to the court that story has to be some dream world you are living in or fantasy,” Bridges said. “No one believed that story; not the jury and not the court.”

Gallatin had been on parole for a child molesting conviction in Wisconsin for about one month before he kidnapped the woman as she left her job at the mall.

Assistant State’s Attorney Ken Larue told Bridges Gallatin had ripped from his ankle the electronic monitor Wisconsin officials ordered him to wear, and moved to the campground at the Chain O’ Lakes State Park.

On June 5, 2010, Gallatin got a ride from a friend to the shopping mall, wandered the aisles all day and then posted himself at an exit looking for someone vulnerable to emerge at closing time, Larue said.

Larue said Gallatin’s predatory conduct on the day of the crime, as well as his unwillingness to comply with the conditions of his parole, qualified him for a sentence of at least 98 years.

“You need to send a message here, your honor,” Larue said. “The defendant has no interest in participating in civilized society.”

The victim and her family were not present in the courtroom for the sentencing hearing, and no victim impact statement was read into the record of the proceedings.

Gallatin did not exercise his right to make a statement to the court, but Assistant Public Defender Timothy MacArthur asked for the minimum sentence of 30 years.

The prison system had failed Gallatin by not providing him with the needed counseling for him to mend his ways, MacArthur argued, and putting Gallatin away for an extended period of time would rob him of hope.

“If you put someone away for life,” MacArthur asked Bridges, “what motivation does it give him to conform his conduct inside the walls of prison or out?”

Bridges said he believed Gallatin had been given the motivation for rehabilitation and had turned his back on it, as evidenced by his actions on the night of the crime.

“It was clear to the victim, as it is clear to this court, that you were going to do what you wanted to do,” Bridges told Gallatin. “Someone was going to be your victim that night.”

Under state law regarding parole, Gallatin will have to serve 97½ years of the sentence before he is eligible for release.