Man Gets Suspended Sentence
5 years ago | 281 views | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Days before he was to go to jury trial for the alleged lewd molestation of a teenage girl, a Sallisaw man pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of aggravated assault and battery and received a five-year suspended sentence.

Brian A. Kotraba, 37, reached a plea agreement Feb. 13 with Sequoyah County prosecutors in Sallisaw. Court records indicate Kotraba's five-year suspended sentence will be unsupervised, and he is required to enter a psychological program.

The charge against Kotraba, filed in November 2004, stemmed from a 2003 report made by a 16-year-old juvenile. She alleged she was touched inappropriately by Kotraba. The victim was spending the night with friends when the incident occurred. The victim's friend reported she saw Kotraba in the room where the girls were sleeping, and Kotraba was sitting in the floor, staring at them.

After an experiment that lasted several months, the editors at Your TIMES decided this week to end the practice of allowing anonymous comments on our website because most of the comments involve personal attacks and unfounded accusations. These comments do not add information to a story, or add any true insight. While we believe in the free exchange of ideas, it had become evident that was not what was happening in the comment section of our website. Readers can also become fans of Your TIMES on Facebook and may comment on our postings there. Readers are also encouraged to write letters to the editor to the newspaper about matters of public interest. The newspaper circulation is several times that of the web site, so readership is much higher. Letters must include a name and phone number so that we may contact the writer to verify authenticity of the letter. Letters are limited to 500 words and one letter per writer per month is accepted.