NEW BRUNSWICK -- A former assistant youth minister, who served in multiple capacities at the Macedonia Freewill Baptist Church in Piscataway, was sentenced to state prison Friday morning for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
Ronald Wilcox, 60, of Fruitland, Md., was sentenced to 10 years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Alberto Rivas as part of a guilty plea he entered in December to one count of aggravated sexual assault.
Rivas said the assault occurred before the state's No Early Release Act occurred so Wilcox won't have to serve 85 percent of his sentence.
"The reality is that he will not serve anywhere near 10 years," the judge said, adding that Wilcox must register as a Megan's Law offender.
Wilcox told the judge when he pleaded guilty that the assault took place between July 1996 until sometime in 1998 at the church and at the girl's home.
"Mr. Wilcox took advantage of a 13-year-old girl," Rivas said. "That's what he admitted to in this courtroom. Any sexual assault of a child is terrible, horrible. It inflicts a lifetime of psychological damage. What made this worse was that it took place in a church setting, a setting that was supposed to be safe."
The judge said he was particularly disturbed that in his interview with the probation officer for his pre-sentence report, Wilcox indicated that the victim "somehow instigated this."
"There is no 13-year-old equipped to handle this kind of relationship," Rivas said.
Friday morning, his attorney, Timothy Dey, and Wilcox, asked the judge to have mercy on him because of his medical condition. Dey said Wilcox, who has been at the Middlesex County jail since his arrest in April 2015, has had two heart attacks in recent years and suffers from prostate cancer. He said he also has a spinal condition that could lead to paralysis if he falls.
Wilcox told the judge, "whatever I have done, I'm sorry."
Wilcox's wife, Jill, also asked the judge to have "mercy" on her husband, saying, "it has just been so hard" since his arrest.
"It's been devastating for me," she said.
His son, Shawn, said told the judge, "I can't believe this is happening. As good a dad as he has been to me, he's been an even better grandfather."
But, Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Morales-Walsh read a letter from the victim, now in her 30's, who said it took her years to be strong enough to come forward and tell anyone what happened to her.
"This defendant took advantage of a young woman between the ages of 13 and 15 for two years," Walsh said. "He has the kind of personality people flock to. In this society, no child should be forced to have sex with anyone."
Authorities said the investigating started when the victim told a relative and the relative contacted police.
Investigators determined that Wilcox sexually assaulted the teenager at a church office and at her home while he served as a deacon-in-training and assisted the youth ministry at the Macedonia Freewill Baptist Church, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.