Family members of sex abuser worried there could be additional victims

By Karly Tinsley

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    VENETA, Oregon (KEZI) — Family members and victims of a recently convicted sex abuser are speaking out, worried there could be additional victims that have yet to come forward.

Ponyboy Gilbert, 50, was sentenced to 20 years for eight counts pertaining to sex abuse and unlawful penetration. He is now in the Lane County Jail. His sentence falls under Measure 11, which means he will serve every day of the sentence.

Court documents show he abused two minors over several years, with the abuse dating back to 2011, when one of the victims was only five years old.

Jeanne Howell was married to Gilbert for 22 years, and said learning about the abuse left her with nothing but questions.

“It’s really confusing because he was a very charismatic person. And a lot of people had a lot of respect for him, admired him,” said Howell. “He was very generous in the community, volunteered his time in the community, volunteered at the schools for several decades as a storyteller and singer there at the schools. So, kind of a little mini celebrity in the community.”

Howell discovered the abuse after reading one of her daughter’s journals. Howell, and her daughter, have allowed KEZI to reveal the relationship to Gilbert.

“He had definitely access to a lot of children. He was a contractor as well. So he was at people’s homes,” said Howell.

Howell’s daughter is now wanting to share an important message: to speak up if you’ve ever experienced abuse, despite feeling like society tells you to do otherwise.

“You’re given all these reasons why you should stay quiet and why you shouldn’t talk about it and that, you know, builds up over time. And you don’t even need someone telling you that you’re not allowed to talk about it. You tell yourself that,” said Howell’s daughter. “But in the same way over time, you’ll get these little tidbits from other people and you realize that maybe this is a good idea. Maybe I should say something. And even if it doesn’t help any other people, that helps yourself because living with lies all the time is really bad for you. And I need to figure out who you are outside of what’s happened to you. I also think it’s more important to talk about than spare someone’s feelings.”

Howell’s daughter said she is disappointed in the outcome of the case and the time Gilbert is going to serve. She was hoping Jessica’s Law would apply, which states that if a person is convicted of one of the offenses listed under the law, a minimum of 25 years must be served.

However, their case was challenging since it would require them proceeding to trial, and only one victim listed in the court documents wanted to do so.

’If one of us was willing to go to trial and the other one wasn’t, that couldn’t happen. It was all or nothing,” said Howell’s daughter. “And not only that, with the plea deal, we knew we could get at least 20 years. Going to trial, we could have fought for more, but we still ran the risk of getting even less like up to six years.’’

Lane County District Attorney Patty Perlow said despite the family and survivors not being fully satisfied, they had to work in the best interest of public safety. That means they worked to get as many years as possible without a trial.

“In every case it’s different, every circumstance is different,” said Perlow. “We’ve been in communication with the family throughout the process and explained the circumstances. To force a child to go forward to trial is a really traumatic thing. It’s re-victimizing somebody, to have to come in and testify, who just doesn’t want to. And so all of those factors have to be weighed in making a decision and what’s in the best interest for the children involved and and for public safety.”

Despite the outcome, Howell doesn’t want people to feel discouraged, and said the most important thing now is to encourage others to find their voice.

“She’s [her daughter] giving them the reality of — it might not work the way you want it to work. But tell anyway. When you can find yourself able to do it, tell it anyway. Everybody along the way have been wonderful people. I mean, they’re in this line of work because they really do care,” said Howell.

And even though the past cant be changed in their situation, they hope it can encourage others to pursue justice.

“Lots of people who have come forward and said their story to me, told me what they did and what helped them. And having a support from people is super important, because it’s really hard to do this on your own. Even going to court. I had support people there because I knew that. I needed it,” said Howell’s daughter. “If people had shared you know, stuff like that more and sooner when when something happens, then they could stop things before they happen.’’

KEZI did reach out to Gilbert’s representation in response to the outcome of the trial, but did not receive a response.

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