Already facing up to 24 years in prison for child sex crimes, Allen Lee Kulp Jr. had 27 months to seven years added to his sentence by Judge Eric Linhardt, after pleading guilty to aggravated harassment by a prisoner on Sept. 5.
The incident occurred on July 1, when, after a fight, Kulp was being moved to a disciplinary cell and began to struggle with officers, ultimately spitting on one of them, according to a pre-sentence report read aloud by Linhardt.
“I’m going to throw (expletive) and (expletive) on you every (expletive) chance I get,” Kulp told officers after being detained in a special management cell, the PSI said.
“This is not a glowing PSI by any stretch of the imagination,” defense attorney Matthew Deimer conceded.
“It would be hard to disagree that he has issues with authority,” Deimer said.
Yet he argued that Kulp’s sentence be run concurrent to his sex crime sentence because the lengthy sentence was effectively a life sentence, considering Kulp’s age.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. I was mad and it was a spur of the moment thing,” Kulp told the judge.
Assistant District Attorney Jessica Feese stressed that a lenient sentence would send a message that those serving heavier sentences, including Kulp himself, may have a “license” to commit further offenses.
“Actions behind prison walls still matter,” Feese told the judge.
While acknowledging Kulp’s acceptance of responsibility, Linhardt also noted that this acceptance was neither “prompt nor timely.”
Looking at Kulp’s lengthy criminal history, which includes 19 adult arrests, his poor prison record and failure to take advantage of any treatment options available to him since incarcerated, Linhardt found that running his sentences concurrently would result in Kulp going unpunished for the incident.
“Running these sentences concurrently would send a message to others that assaults on correctional staff are not taken seriously and could put them at further risk of harm,” Linhardt said. “That is a message this court is not about to send.”
At the time of the incident, Kulp was incarcerated after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor and indecent assault of a person less than 13 in September, at which time he was ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender.
Kulp continues to face trial on 10 counts of sexual assault and one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.