Sexual Abuser Of 8-Year-Old Gets 20 Years

A 66-year-old man who posed as a police officer to lure a young boy into his car and molest him was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison.

Ronald J. Nordland apologized to the 8-year-old boy he molested last November and to the boy’s family, saying he hoped they could get on with their lives.

First District Court Judge James Michaud sentenced Nordland to a life term, with a mandatory 20 years. That means Nordland, who is married and has four grown children, will be 86 before he has any chance of getting out of prison.

The judge said the stiff sentence was in part because of Nordland’s prior record of sexual abuse. He was arrested in 1977 and pleaded guilty to molesting a 12-year-old girl.

Nordland was sentenced Tuesday for an incident that occurred Nov. 28, 1994. In the early morning Nordland stopped a third-grader and his 15-year-old brother who were delivering newspapers.

He told the boys he was a police officer investigating a burglary and the boys fit the description of the suspects. Authorities said Nordland ordered the boys into his car. When they refused he pulled a knife and threatened them. The younger boy eventually got in the car and the older one ran for help.

Nordland drove the boy around, stopped at the edge of town and molested him, once threatening to mutilate the boy if he didn’t take off his clothes, authorities said.

An hour later Nordland blindfolded the boy and dropped him off at the Sandpoint bowling alley. Police later spotted Nordland’s car parked in town and arrested him. Nordland pleaded guilty to molesting and kidnapping the boy and has been in jail awaiting sentencing.

, DataTimes