Father sentenced to prison for inappropriate acts with daughters

It was a somber Logan County courtroom on Friday afternoon as a daughter testified against her father in a sentencing case involving lewd molestation. The Guthrie man soon after walked out of the courtroom and to prison.

Bobby Cole, 58, stood in front of the judge and told him he would do whatever it took to heal his family. He said if a death warrant was issued and it healed his family he be willing to do it.

“I’m very sorry,” he said as family members and friends sat on his side of the courtroom.

Cole’s statements came after four witnesses took the stand as he entered a blind plea on a count of sexual battery and one count of lewd molestation on two of his daughters.

The first person to take the stand was a daughter, who read from a multi-page prepared statement. In the statement she called her father a “monster” and how “he destroyed her” and has “forever affected my life” as she cried throughout the reading. Her voice would strengthen at times to show frustration toward her dad, who sat with his back to the stand and looking away as she spoke.

“Molesting his daughter is not what God wanted,” she cried out.

Court papers, dated from Nov. 2014, states the inappropriate acts started in an out-of-state hotel room in March 2006 and advanced to sexual acts a few months later when he would go into her bedroom at night and lock the door.

Cole would remind her not tell anyone about their “special relationship.”

A second daughter, whom did not testify, said her dad would come into her bedroom and lay down with her until she turned 13-years-old.

During Cole’s statement he denied anything ever happening to his second daughter.

The defense called two character witnesses on behalf of Cole, whose attorney John Gile requested probation for Cole.

Both witnesses said they would trust their daughters to be alone with Cole today, which seem to draw anger from Assistant District Attorney William Pierce.

“He has taken responsibility,” one witness said. While the other witness said, “Bobby has suffered too. I feel he’s a changed man.”

During final arguments, Pierce said he wishes he could request the death penalty, but said the law did not allow that in this case. Suddenly, Cole shouted out “too bad.”

Judge Louis Duel told the courtroom that he learned from a mentor that you don’t send people to prison because you’re mad at them, but because you’re afraid of them.

Afterwards, the judge sentenced Cole to the maximum five years on the sexually battery count and the maximum 20 years on the lewd molestation count with 10 of those years suspended with the Department of Corrections. Both counts will run concurrently.

Cole was also ordered to register as a sex offender and pay court costs.