After an unorthodox two-week back and forth period with the courts, 451st District Court Judge Kirsten Cohoon employed some creative solutions to sentence an 81-year-old Comfort resident on hospice, Joseph Allen Nezat, to 60 years in state prison.
Nezat pleaded guilty to the first-degree felony of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 in February. However, the court was left reeling to find a way to sentence the defendant after he discontinued dialysis treatments in the wake of his sentencing after Cohoon made it clear she disapproved of the “gamesmanship” being played with the justice system.
“I can’t wipe under the carpet the matters that have been pleaded guilty to because the defendant is dying,” Cohoon said before handing down the likely life sentence. “And because he is 81 … it might be true that Mr. Nezat might never even make it to see the inside of the penitentiary that I am sentencing him to. …
“And I do believe that Mr. Nezat should see the inside of the penitentiary, but I do believe that he is living inside his own penitentiary at this moment, self-inflicted as it may be for quitting the dialysis treatment.”
The prosecution, represented by Assistant Criminal District Attorney Nick Socias, sought no less than 50 years for the crime committed by Nezat.
“The defendant did originally plead guilty to the case knowing it was 25 to life with no chance of parole,” Socias said during his closing argument. “The upsetting thing that lost that sympathy is that instead of trying to give these young women closure and peace, he (Nezat) says directly to the court’s probation officer, ‘I will stop dialysis when they take me or before.’ And, as we know, he did stop dialysis. So, he’s still trying to stop these proceedings and not let these girls have their day in court.”
Earlier this month, a sentencing hearing was scheduled after Nezat’s guilty plea. But Nezat was nowhere to be found when the proceedings arrived April 14. His defense attorney, Dante Dominguez, said Nezat didn’t have a ride and recently had been taken off dialysis, making it difficult for him to come in.
A motion for a continuance by Dominguez initially was denied by Cohoon, and a warrant was issued for the arrest of Nezat. However, the judge reneged on the warrant by last Tuesday after a state trooper, a Kendall County probation officer and the county jail administrator indicated the county jail would not be able to house Nezat, likely having to place him in a hospital under supervision, costing the county extra money. So, Cohoon granted a continuance for the defendant. However, by the end of the afternoon that same day, April 19, a Zoom sentencing was set for Nezat for April 21.
“I do not appreciate games being played with this judicial system, and your client, Mr. Nezat, is playing an ultimate game with this court system,” Cohoon said before the Zoom hearing was scheduled. “The ultimate game will end with his demise. I’m flabbergasted, and I think that’s both the best and easiest way I can put that. I cannot believe I am sitting here behind this bench with a decision being made by a defendant to basically end his life so that he does not come back to this court.”
Cohoon sentenced Nezat to house arrest with a monitor until TDCJ picked him up.
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