BOZEMAN, Mont. -- A Florida man who posed as a physician, called women on the telephone and talked them into mutilating themselves received a 20-year prison sentence in District Court.
Coaxed by Joseph G. Sherer, one woman cut off a nipple and flushed it down the toilet. Another inserted nine tampons into her vagina. Sherer also encouraged women to harm themselves with nail polish remover.
Sherer, 42, from Fort Lauderdale, was sentenced Tuesday for assault, criminal endangerment and impersonating a doctor.
Prosecutors said he gained personal information about women by telling them he was a doctor treating their mothers for hereditary disease or bacterial infections. He persuaded women they needed to do tests at home for the same disorders.
Authorities say 200 victims in eight states have reported telephone incidents in the last three years. Fifty-seven of them live in Gallatin County, Bozeman Police Detective Rich McLane said.
Sherer was arrested a year ago and pleaded guilty in August.
"These were crimes of exploitation," District Judge Mike Salvagni said. "They were not merely crimes of making obscene phone calls."
Salvagni noted Sherer has a criminal history of similar offenses dating back to 1980 and was jailed for a few months before.
"Prior incarceration for short periods of time did nothing to modify his conduct," the judge said.
Sherer may not leave prison until he completes a program for sex offenders, Salvagni said. The sentence includes 30 years on parole.
"It was entirely random on my part," Sherer said Tuesday before the sentencing. "I'm very sorry for all the pain and mental suffering I've caused these women, not just the ones here in Bozeman, but all of them."
Defense lawyer Herman "Chuck" Watson III told the judge Sherer suffered childhood abuse by his mother, who poured nail polish remover on Sherer's genitals and once tried to cut off one of his nipples.
Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert said it is possible McLane's work on the case will be used in other states by prosecutors who may file charges. A case in Wyoming is pending.
