JEROME — Kirk D. Rose told the district judge he doesn’t know why he did it. According to him, he had never had that urge before, the desire to inappropriately touch a girl.

It was while the two, Rose, 62, and an 8-year-old girl, were having a “tickle fight,” and he did the unthinkable.

Many times, sex assault victims endure years of humiliation before the truth comes out. But this wasn’t not going to happen in this case.

The girl took out her phone and called her mother. Not only that, but she barricaded a door so Rose couldn’t get in.

Within a short time, the incident had been reported to police and law enforcement officers were at the scene.

Judge Rosemary Emory, speaking at Rose’s July 17 sentencing hearing, praised the girl and her mother. They had a plan in place in case anything like that were to happen.

“You didn’t know she had been taught,” the girl’s grandmother told Rose as she addressed the court as part of a victim’s impact statement. “You messed with a superhero, so you lose.”

But the one-time experience still affected this superhero. She now has trust issues with older men, although “I feel better now that I know he won’t come near me again,” she told Emory.

She said she might have saved other girls from suffering the same fate.

Due to Rose’s connection to the girl’s family, the impact of his action has been horrendous, the girl’s mother said.

It was not supposed to end this way. In fact, the girl was excited to become acquainted with Rose, who, as a Navy veteran, had plenty of stories to tell. The girl’s mother envisioned Rose as being part of the girl’s life.

But now, relationships have ended.

The mother said during Rose’s sentencing that this was going to be the last time he will see her. Ever.

They said they hoped the incident would bring awareness to the crime that on its face seems to be a growing, or at the very least, a continuing problem in Magic Valley.

Notices of lewd conduct or sex abuse cases involving minors from Twin Falls and Jerome counties seem far too common, for such a heinous crime.

It isn’t a topic that makes for polite dinner-table conversation, but yet has the potential to turn lives upside down and split families.

“These kinds of cases are very, very hard on society,” said Minidoka County Prosecuting Attorney Lance Stevenson. “Not only are they hard on a defendant who is asked to pay a price to society, but they are also very damaging on relationships, family and on victims.”

He points out that it isn’t just the child who is the victim, but their support group gets victimized, but parents, grandparents, the whole family.

According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network), sexually abused children are four times more likely to develop symptoms of drug abuse, and four times more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder as adults, and three times more likely to experience a major depressive episode as adults.

“It’s not like you can give the candy bar back to the store and it’s good,” Stevenson said. “It has a lasting effect; it can be difficult to deal with for years.”

Lt. Justin Dimond of the Twin Falls Police Department said that the department stresses to officers that they start by believing potential crime victims, whether they be children or adults, when they come forward with allegations.

“That is something we hammer into our officers,” Dimond said.

After further interviews and investigation, sometimes by administering polygraph examinations to suspects and referring possible victims for interviews at St. Luke’s CARES, decisions are made on whether to file charges.

As far as numbers go, the case against Rose is really just the tip of the iceberg. While Rose was sentenced for a single count of sex abuse, Robert Kolb Sr., a former Twin Falls resident, faces a dozen counts of lewd conduct with a minor. He has not been found guilty.

But it shows you that even a single incident can turn lives upside down.

Immediately prior to Rose’s sentencing hearing that day in Emory’s courtroom in Jerome, Alfredo Ochoa-Villalobos was sentenced to two counts of lewd conduct.

As an undocumented migrant, he will likely be deported after serving his sentence.

The two back-to-back cases involving sex crimes against minors could be an indication of how prevalent cases are.

“It is probably way more common than we think,” Dimond said.

Coming up with definite numbers of how many children are abused nationwide is difficult because so much of it goes unreported, say agencies. According to one 2014 study, one in nine girls and one in 20 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault.

Stevenson said he is seeing increasing numbers.

“We are prosecuting more cases,” he said. “At any given time, we have five to 10 cases on our docket.”

He attributed an uptick in the case numbers to law enforcement officers being more proficient in investigating sexual abuse cases and finding perpetrators, and that more individuals are willing to come forward after being abused “and say this is wrong,” Stevenson said.

A Times-News count showed four new cases filed in July involving sex crimes with children, with the crimes ranging from a former youth pastor charged with improperly touching a 16-year-old student at a church school, to a Castleford man suspected of taking a 13-year-old girl to his house, committing lewd conduct and forcing her to sniff drugs.

While no new cases were found in a search in Jerome County, judges still heard matters dealing with child sex abuse charges, from a pre-conference with Rusnell Hunter, charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, to Matthew Cheyenne Adams, facing four counts of lewd conduct with a child, and two counts of enticing children over the internet.

It’s almost too much to cover and notes from various hearings could, and have, filled reporters’ notebooks.

The 2022 Crime in Idaho report, released in July, details some of the numbers statewide. Twenty Idaho girls 10 and under were raped, 12 sodomized, the report says, and 220 fondled.

Twenty-nine girls age 10 and under were sexually assaulted with an object, the report says. Girls that age aren’t the only victims: 87 boys age 10 and under were fondled and 12 were sodomized.

In the category of girls between 13 and 14 years old, 66 were raped in Idaho in 2022 and 157 were fondled. Eighteen were sexually assaulted with an object. Five boys in that age group were reported to have been raped and three sodomized.

The unpleasant statistics run on and on.

Statewide, nonconsensual sex offenses against children declined in 2022 compared with 2021, the report says, from 1,498 to 1,296.

Nonconsensual sex offenses are defined as any sexual act directed against another person, forcible and/or against that person’s will; or not forcible or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent. In Idaho, the “age of consent” is determined by the age of the older partner. In some circumstances, it is 16 while in others it’s 18. Prior to reaching the age of consent, you can not legally consent to a sexual act.

In Twin Falls County in 2022, there were 82 reports of fondling and 15 of them were cleared, according to the latest Idaho crime report. The number was 121 in 2021, with 19 of the cases cleared.

Numbers for 2023 won’t be available for almost a year.

In cases reported to law enforcement, 93% of child abuse victims know their perpetrators, according to RAINN. It is mostly common for child abuse victims to know the perpetrators, with 59% being acquaintances, 34% family members, and 7% strangers.

But don’t discount the number of cases that could be perpetrated by strangers.

Dimond points to online stings conducted by police officers in Magic Valley where a law enforcement officer will pose online as an underage child. Numerous people have been caught trying to solicit sex from children they don’t know.

Whether the child knows or doesn’t know his victim, even one case is too many. And when someone is found guilty, a price needs to be paid.

There is the protection of society to consider. Stevenson said a lot goes into sentencing, the pre-sentence report and the psychosexual evaluation, to determine whether the person is a predator or not.

“I honestly feel we have to be extremely harsh on those cases for deterrent purposes because we are getting a lot more of them,” Stevenson said.

Ochoa-Villalobos was given a sentence of seven years fixed and 15 years indeterminate for each of his two counts of lewd conduct that he plead guilty to as part of a plea agreement, with 371 days credit for time served.

And in Rose’s case, a plea deal was struck between the prosecutor’s office and Rose, who was represented by public defender Charles Rodriguez. Under the deal, prosecutors recommended a sentence of 10 years fixed prison time plus 10 years indeterminate, but that sentence would be suspended, and he would serve 10 years probation. As long as he met the terms of probation, Rose wouldn’t have seen jail time.

But this hearing had a surprise ending.

Deputy Prosecutor Sam Beus told Emory he wasn’t involved with the plea deal, and said although the deal was made, he made the recommendation to her with “some trepidation.”

He said Rose had tried to minimize his behavior, and before admitting guilt, he had told police that the victim had pushed his hand down to her genitals.

Rodriguez, however, said Rose has come to terms with his actions and has taken responsibility. He said evaluations came to the conclusion that the chance that Rose will re-offend is “very low.”

He emphasized Rose was a one-time offender. If he was suspected of other abuse, police would have done other investigations, maybe issuing search warrants.

Judges aren’t required to follow recommended sentences involving plea deals. It’s up to the court’s discretion and Emory weighed the risk of Rose re-offending.

Emory said she thought jail time was appropriate, and instead of following the recommended sentence, levied a two-year fixed term and 18 years indeterminate, with credit for 61 days of time served.

And with that, Rose was remanded into custody.

Rose has since appealed the sentence, and Emory has filed an Order Appointing State Appellate Public Defender, as Rose has been found indigent.

So the case of Kirk Rose goes on.

And, tragically, the number of cases involving victimized children continues to climb as well.