The only people to speak in support of a serial sex offender at a recent sentencing hearing were two Springfield police detectives.
More than three years after his arrest by Illinois State Police, Zane Merreighn, 25, was sentenced to 21 years in prison for the sexual abuse of five girls who ranged in age from 14 to 16 years old.
Related
More girls accuse detective’s son of sexual abuse
Merreighn is the son of Jennifer Oglesby Mack, who is a sex crimes investigator for the Springfield Police Department. Parents of the victims contend Merreighn’s crime spree could have been stopped sooner if not for area law enforcement agencies cutting him breaks because his mother was a cop.
Special Appellate Prosecutor Lorinda Lamken said there was no evidence that Oglesby Mack used her influence to protect her son. But she added it is clear that Merreighn evoked his mother’s name and sought special treatment.
For example, one girl who said she was violently raped by Merreighn when she was 15 has told Illinois Times she didn’t initially go to the police in part because Merreighn had repeatedly told her his mother was the city’s sex crimes detective.
“I think he knew he was going to get in my pants, whether there was consent or not. So, he knew if there wasn’t consent, he was going to try to scare me and try to have me think like, oh, if I come out with this, I’m going to get called out as a liar because his mom’s a child-predator detective,” she previously told an IT reporter.
Illinois Times is not identifying the victims because they were all minors at the time of the crimes.
Other victims – and their parents – testified during the Nov. 6 sentencing hearing to the devastation Merreighn brought into their lives.
The victims spoke of battling depression during the years following their assaults, finding it difficult to trust others and build friendships, not wanting to be alone with their fathers, brothers or other men, not eating, not sleeping, struggling in school and seeking professional psychiatric help.
One mother testified, “Our daughter’s innocence was taken by this sick, adult predator who focused all of his attention on hunting down young, prepubescent children and destroying one after another, after another, as a kind of victory for himself. (This was) something he was proud of and, to this day, shows no remorse. I’m interested in knowing how many girls didn’t come forward. How dare you. You should be sick and ashamed of yourself, Zane.
“I hope you are made to feel shame because of your actions for the rest of your life. In my opinion, a person like you doesn’t deserve a second chance. You are scum of the earth. You are lower than trash. You do not deserve my beautiful young daughter or any of these young ladies. You are a predator. I hope your life, feelings and body get treated the same way in prison as you have treated the lives of these young girls – with total disrespect. You deserve nothing less than to be as humiliated, ashamed, confused and embarrassed as you have made these young women feel – one after another, after another, after another, after another.”
During the testimony, Oglesby Mack sat next to her husband, Michael Mack, and stared at the floor. Mack is also a detective with the SPD.
Both testified on behalf of the defense, saying their house could serve as an alternative to incarceration because if Merreighn lived with them, they would ensure he met the conditions of his parole.
As part of the plea agreement earlier this year, Merreighn pleaded guilty to three felony counts of aggravated sexual abuse as well as two misdemeanor counts of criminal sexual abuse. It was left to Circuit Judge Ryan Cadigan to determine his sentence at a Nov. 6 hearing.
Cadigan imposed the maximum sentence of 21 years in prison. However, if the Illinois Department of Corrections finds that Merreighn is well-behaved, he could be released after serving half of that time. He will also receive credit for three years of time already served in the Sangamon County Jail.
Although both his mother and current stepfather testified he would be welcome in their home as an alternative to prison, Merreighn’s relationship with them has at times been strained. During a December 2021 jailhouse interview with IT, Merreighn said he stopped living with his family when he was 16.
In fact, he told IT that he was allowed to visit their home but not to spend the night. He said he was also not allowed to attend their wedding earlier that year because at the time he was under investigation for sexual assault.
“(My mother) just didn’t want any problems. We agreed that it would be better for me not to come. So, then (she) didn’t have to worry about anything. And neither did I, because there would be a lot of cops there for her wedding, obviously, because of where she works,” Merreighn said.
The appellate prosecutor’s office handled the case because then-State’s Attorney Dan Wright recused himself since lawyers working for that office routinely interact with Merreighn’s mother on cases.
The parents of the victims expressed skepticism that Oglesby Mack didn’t use her status as a police officer to protect her son.
Related
Parents say police stifled investigation
One father alleged that when his then-14-year-old daughter was being sexually assaulted in Merreighn’s apartment, the responding officer contacted Oglesby Mack and had her contact her son and have him drive his victim home.
Another father testified that his daughter was the first of Merreighn’s known victims. He noted that all of the investigative files in his daughter’s case mysteriously disappeared from the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office and the video of his daughter being interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center about her assault disappeared from a computer at the center. He noted that Oglesby Mack has worked closely with the center in her role as a detective.
Several of the families told IT that they are contemplating filing a lawsuit against the Springfield Police Department.
This article appears in Low attendance holds back school performance.
