Ex-Worker in Beatrice Abuse Case Gets Prison Time
(KTNC) -- A former worker at the Beatrice State Developmental Center has been sentenced to at least nine years in prison for abusing residents there in 2011.
Matthew Pangborn pleaded no contest to abusing and strangling three BSDC residents in 2011. Gage County District Judge Paul Korslund sentenced Pangborn to at least nine years, four months, in prison, with a maximum sentence of 15 years.
Gage County Attorney Roger Harris argued in favor of a harsh sentence, saying he had to speak for the victims, who were not able to speak for themselves. Harris agreed to drop four additional charges against Pangborn in a plea agreement.
Pangborn’s attorney, Brett McArthur, argued his client should receive a prison sentence no longer than those handed down to four other former BSDC workers who were convicted of abusing residents.
Pangborn’s sentence is the harshest in the five BSDC abuse cases. The four other defendants in the case received sentences ranging from six months to four years.
Pangborn had been convicted and sentenced earlier, but the Nebraska Supreme Court threw out the case and ordered a retrial.
© Nebraska Radio Network
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