Caledonia Argus

Lane enters guilty plea in child beating

Posted: 4/27/04

By David Heiller
Argus News Editor

James Toviis Lane pled guilty in Houston County District Court April 14 to malicious punishment of a child, a felony.

He will be sentenced on June 16 at 9 a.m. to 135 days in jail and five years probation, assuming Judge James Fabian accepts the plea agreement.

In a March 10 incident in Caledonia, Lane, 37, punished a 10-year-old boy by hitting him in the stomach with his fist and then hitting him across his buttocks several times with a leather belt.

The boyís injuries were reported to the Houston County Sheriff by school officials. Lane was arrested and charged with six related counts.

Rick Jackson, Houston County Attorney, said on April 23 that Lane violated the law in six separate ways, but it was one single act, so he could only get convicted and sentenced for count.

Jackson added that he is satisfied with the plea agreement, which calls for Lane to serve 135 days, and be on probation for five years. It conforms with state sentencing guidelines for the level four offense, he said.

The plea agreement carries meaningful jail time, and avoids putting a child through a trial, Jackson said.

Lane does not live in Caledonia, but he was spending time in the city and in La Crosse at the time of the beating. He is presently in the Houston County Jail, and is scheduled for release on June 9, although that could be moved up if he does Sentence-to-Serve (STS) work, which grants prisoners one day off their sentence for each day of STS.

Lane was represented by James Schultz, a public defender.

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