44 sex charges dropped, but prison unaltered
Staff writer
A Canton man originally charged with 49 sex charges made a plea bargain Tuesday and was convicted on five charges.
Matthew W. Dudte, 52, agreed to plead no contest to aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and three counts of aggravated endangering of a child.
The plea agreement hammered out between County Attorney Michelle Brown, Dudte, and his lawyer, Stephen Ariagno, calls for all sentences to run consecutively and to be the maximum allowed by law for a defendant with Dudte’s record.
“The parties anticipate the total number of months the defendant shall serve in prison will be 247 months with lifetime post release supervision,” the agreement states.
A sentence of 247 months would be 20 years and 6 months.
Depending on previous criminal history, sentencing guidelines suggest a sentence of up to 54¼ years in prison for aggravated criminal sodomy; up to 20½ years in prison for aggravated indecent liberties with a child; and 5 to 13 months’ probation for each count of aggravated endangering of a child unless Dudte had two or more earlier convictions for crimes against people.
Under sentencing rules, the most prison time Dudte could receive is twice his aggravated criminal sodomy sentence. Cutting the number of guilty pleas from 49 to 5 makes no difference in the sentence he will receive.
Dudte has remained in jail since his arrest Dec. 19, 2023.
Before reaching the agreement, Dudte was charged with rape; rape of a child younger than 14; 17 counts of aggravated criminal sodomy; 19 counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child younger than 14; six counts of pornographic sexual exploitation of a child younger than 14; two counts of sodomy; two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child; and one count each of aggravated incest, aggravated endangering of a child, and incest.