By Naheed Rajwani
The Dallas Morning News
ELLIS COUNTY, Texas — A former Ellis County fireman is expected to plead guilty Thursday to his role in the sexual assault of a male colleague at a firehouse last year.
But advocates for sexual assault victims say the plea deal, which proposes that he get probation and that charges for seven other suspects be dropped, is unusual and unsettling.
“We look toward firefighters, even if they’re volunteer firefighters, as heroes and people who really help us in need,” said Bobbie Villareal, a former Dallas County prosecutor and former head of the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center. “And for them to victimize a colleague like that is extremely disturbing.”
She said she believes that the deal is outrageous and would send a “terrible message.”
Keith Edward Wisakowsky originally faced felony sex assault charges in the case, which generated local and national headlines. Under the deal, Wisakowsky would plea to a misdemeanor assault charge in exchange for two years’ probation. Charges against four other firemen accused of participating in the assault, a woman accused of filming it and the two fire chiefs accused of an attempted cover-up will be dropped if the plea deal is finalized by a judge.
The attack
Authorities said Wisakowsky, Preston Thomas Peyrot, Alec Chase Miller, Casey Joe Stafford and Blake Jerold Tucker sexually assaulted Waldeck in January 2015.
The men first tried to use a broomstick, but then one of them retrieved a sausage from the station’s refrigerator and assaulted him, authorities said. The humiliation continued after the assault when someone stole the victim’s clothes and towel after he showered, according to court records.
Wisakowsky’s girlfriend, Brittany Leanne Parten, was accused of filming the assault with her cellphone.
She and the five men were arrested in April 2015. They were charged with aggravated sexual assault, which carries a prison sentence between five years and life, and attempted aggravated sexual assault.
The fire chief and assistant fire chief were arrested on felony witness tampering charges because authorities alleged the men tried to cover up the attack by instructing the people involved not to talk about it.
The Dallas Morning News does not usually identify victims of sexual assault, but the victim, Jason Waldeck, agreed to an interview last year because he wanted to share his story.
“I’m not going to sit back and hide from it anymore,” he said then.
The outcome
The Ellis County district attorney’s office hasn’t publicly said why it proposed a deal to drop the felony charges against the suspects in exchange for a misdemeanor charge for only one of them.
Ellis County DA Patrick Wilson said Wednesday that he couldn’t comment because the plea deal had not been finalized. “I’d be happy to revisit the issue if the case gets disposed tomorrow,” he said.
Brenda Tracy, who visits colleges across the country to talk about sexual assault, expressed outrage over the proposed deal.
She said it’s important to empower victims to take back the control they feel was lost when they were assaulted.
“Too often we see perpetrators allowed to destroy a victim’s life and then just walk away like nothing happened,” Tracy said. “Sexual assault victims don’t get to walk away. Ever.”
She said the only way such a deal might be acceptable would be if the victim approved.
“Rape is about power and control,” she said. “It is important that we empower the victim to take back their power and control.”
Waldeck declined to comment for this report. Prosecutors said in court that they had discussed the proposed deal with him, but didn’t elaborate.
One in every 10 rape victims is a man, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. The majority of these crimes, however, are not reported to authorities.
‘A brighter day’
The Ellis County Emergency Services District No. 6 fire station has been in operation since 2010. Around the time the sex assault story broke last year, the department had 26 volunteer firefighters.
The scandal created a public uproar and forced officials to temporarily close the department.
Three months ago, retired Dallas Fire-Rescue fireman Jake Escamilla took over as the ESD No. 6 fire chief. He’d previously run the department from 2010 until 2012, but was asked to return after the arrests.
“I was floored that it actually happened, that it had come down to that,” Escamilla said Wednesday.
Since taking over, Escamilla said, he has added training for firefighters and obtained more equipment for the department.
He also encourages firefighters to talk to him if they encounter any problems. And he’s encouraged firefighters to develop a deeper connection with each other by inviting families to the firehouse for meals.
“This is like building a house,” he said. “If you don’t have a good foundation, it can crumble.”
The department now has 23 firefighters, some of them new, but it’s unlikely the firemen accused of assaulting Waldeck will get to return to the ESD No. 6 firehouse.
“They won’t be back for sure,” Escamilla said.
The plea hearing is expected to be Thursday morning in Judge A. Gene Calvert Jr.'s courthouse in Waxahachie.
Copyright 2016 The Dallas Morning News