Park City man sentenced
Park City resident Donald Reigelsperger was sentenced Monday in Third District Court to 15 years to life in prison for kidnapping and sexually assaulting his estranged wife.
"We are very pleased with the jury’s verdict and with Judge [Todd] Shaughnessy’s sentence," said County Attorney David Brickey, whose office’s Matthew Bates prosecuted the case, in a statement. "This was a terrifying crime that scarred the victim and destroyed the trust of Mr. Reigelsperger’s family. The verdict and lengthy sentence are appropriate."
Reigelsperger, 59, was originally charged with one count of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of aggravated sexual assault, and one count of aggravated burglary for the Jan. 26, 2013 incident.
Reigelsperger was convicted in March, 2014 after a jury heard three days of evidence and then returned verdicts of guilty of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of forcible sexual abuse and other offenses.
During sentencing at the Summit County Justice Center, the judge said that Reigelsperger showed a "staggering lack of remorse" and a "phenomenal inability to accept responsibility."
The judge also imposed prison terms for each of the sexual offenses and ordered them to run consecutively to the aggravated kidnapping term.
According to the Statement of Probable Cause in the case file, on Jan. 26, 2013 Reigelsperger confronted his estranged wife three months after she had left him and told him that she wanted a divorce. They had been married 28 years and owned a property-management company.
The Jan. 26 confrontation occurred on Morning Star Court in Thaynes Canyon in a house managed by the company owned by Reigelsperger and the victim, according to prosecutors, and he held her at the house at gunpoint. Officers later found that the weapon was a BB gun that looked like a semiautomatic handgun.
After a sexual assault, Reigelsperger allowed her to leave and told her she "better hurry or he might change his mind," prosecutors said. She drove away and called 911.
Police officers found him at the house and he walked out the front door with the BB gun, the prosecutors said, and officers ordered him to drop the gun. He did so and was taken into custody.
After the sentencing, the victim issued a statement in which she thanked Summit County and Park City law enforcement for their "diligence and support through a difficult and extensive judicial process."
Summit Land Conservancy formally closes on ‘keystone’ project partially acquired through open space bond
”The land is beloved by all of my brothers and sisters and cousins, as my grandfather bought it in 1914. My daughter Michelle is now the fourth-generation that has loved and worked the land,” said landowner Irene Ruf. “It’s just precious. It’s home.”
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