Oil City News13%
Mills man sentenced to 40–70 years in prison for sexual abuse of two girls 19%
By Greg Hirst5%
8/3/2026, 6:13:17 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 15 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Availability Heuristic, and Anecdotal, with Confirmation Bias as the most egregious example at 26.9% saturation with 186 hits. Analysis detected 838 faulty-reasoning hits from 691 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 27.5% and a BS Rank of 19% (22,630 of 27,621 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 81.90% of the article peer group.
CASPER, Wyo. — A Mills man was sentenced to 40–70 years in prison on Monday after a Natrona County jury found him guilty on seven felony counts , six related to the sexual abuse of two girls between 2013 and 2019.
Joseph Crandall, 44, faced sentencing before Judge Dan Forgey on Monday.
One of the counts was first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, punishable by 25–50 years in prison.
The girl in that count told investigators with the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office and Casper Police Department that she had been abused by Crandall starting around the age of 7 and that he had forcibly raped her on numerous occasions, according to the report by now-retired NCSO Investigations Sergeant Taylor Courtney.
“I think this is recognized as one of the worst crimes one can commit,” Assistant District Attorney Pat LeBrun told the judge at the sentencing hearing.
According to the report, the girl had been interviewed by the Children’s Advocacy Project in 2019 and described Crandall as violent but reportedly denied any sexual abuse.
She spoke to investigators again in 2024, prompted by her then-boyfriend, who had noticed her demeanor change drastically after he insisted on buying her candy at the movies.
She told him that, because of her history of abuse, she associated gifts with the expectation of sexual favors.
The year before, another girl who had been under Crandall’s guardianship had spoken to investigators and said he had propositioned her to engage in a sex act in exchange for buying her a phone.
The jury found him guilty on a count of sexual exploitation of children.
Crandall was also convicted of a second-degree court after the girl’s testimony that Crandall made contact with her breasts while giving her a massage when she was 12 years old.
The jury found Crandall not guilty of charges related to another girl, and some counts were dismissed with a judgement of acquittal during the trial.
Her disclosures to a counselor in 2017 at the age of 15 touched off an initial investigation into Crandall by Deputy Courtney.
Those charges were dismissed shortly after district court arraignment, according to records in the Seventh Judicial District.
The affidavit filed in August 2025 on the new case says a member of Crandall’s family in Fremont County had taken the girl to the Riverton Police Department to recant her allegations.
A psychologist told investigators the girl had significant intellectual impairment, and the Riverton PD sergeant said he was suspicious that she was being coerced into taking back her allegations.
Texts cited in the affidavit showed the girl was ostracized over the allegations, and she reportedly maintained that “nothing really happened” when a Casper Police Department detective spoke to her again in summer 2023.
At a status conference late last year, Crandall’s lawyer told the judge that the girl had made clear she didn’t want to speak with investigators.
“These crimes destroy families,” LeBrun said at the sentencing Monday.
“People take sides.
People who’ve known each other for their entire lives turn on each other.”
All three girls who spoke to investigators said Crandall showed them pornography, according to the report.
“Joseph Crandall is the worst kind of pedophile,” a family member of one of the victims told the judge.
“He took advantage of the fact that everyone trusted him.”
Crandall will get credit for 174 days served on the case.
He was arrested and held without bond following the jury’s verdict on March 12.
He was originally charged with 26 counts.
Six were dismissed at trial, and Crandall was acquitted on 13, though some were alternative charging theories for conduct that was ultimately convicted on lesser included counts.
“Justice is not about how much time Joe Crandall spends in prison,” Courtney told Oil City News on Monday evening.
“Justice is how the survivors will be able to move forward in a healthy way and live the life they want and the life they deserve.”
NOTE: The specific charging language for two of the convicted counts have been omitted in the interest of victim privacy.
Speakers
2speakers12%attributed speech609writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coveragePat LeBrun
36 attributed words44% of attributed speech81% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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