Wrona will register as a sex offender, now that he’s convicted of incest and forcible sexual abuse.
The disgraced Park City attorney avoided prison and will serve a year at the Summit County jail. Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik also included a protective order in his sentence.
Wrona will not be allowed to contact his daughter for the rest of his life, himself or through a third party.
The Summit County Attorney’s Office originally charged him with a first degree felony in 2022 for allegedly raping his adult biological daughter.
The reduced charges in the plea deal are second and third degree felonies, and by pleading to the sex abuse charge, Wrona admits he initiated nonconsensual sexual contact.
Prosecutors and the survivor’s attorney Michael Langford say she supported the plea agreement. Wrona’s daughter also filed a statement with the court.
In the statement, the survivor says Wrona was controlling and manipulative from the moment they established a relationship. They first met when she was an adult.
“He sought me out for my vulnerability,” she wrote.
She says he invited her on several expensive vacations, encouraged her to quit her job and to move to Park City.
There, she felt afraid for her safety and trapped in a condo he’d purchased. She says she tried to avoid her father by working and making friends but that Wrona caught on and started taking away her freedoms.
The condo was where the alleged rape occurred in March 2022.
"I just wanted a dad. Instead I got a soul-sucking monster,” the survivor wrote. “I'm so thankful Joseph Wrona's chapter is over in my life, but the effects will be lifelong. He can rot in hell for all I care.”
Wrona has two sons with his current partner. The survivor pleaded for their safety, too.
“If there was one thing the world could gain from these events happening to me, I pray it’d be saving those two children from a revolting excuse of a father,” she said.
Often Utah judges can choose a different sentence than what a plea agreement recommends. However, Mrazik dispelled widely-circulating misconceptions about the options before him Jan. 5.
Under the rules of criminal procedure governing this specific case, he could either accept the plea or reject it, which would send the case back to a trial. Mrazik did not have the discretion to impose a different sentence.
In his ruling, Mrazik said he doesn’t have as much information or evidence as the prosecution or defense do.
“Substituting my judgment for that of the survivor of sexual violence is not appropriate,” he said. “And finally, there is tremendous value in certainty.”
Mrazik meant the certainty of jail time versus the possibility of a hung jury or “not guilty” verdict. The judge said he can’t second-guess “the state’s handicapping of its own ability to prove its case.”
The state would have had to prove its case to a jury in a public trial.
"This would have required hours—if not days—of excruciatingly painful testimony by the survivor of Mr. Wrona's crimes and would have subjected her to cross-examination on that testimony,” Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson said.
The survivor says her mother was abusive, too. She moved in with another family for part of her adolescence.
“The manipulation and abuse I endured growing up [with my mother] was very difficult, and more so when she would make it clear to me I deserved it,” the daughter wrote.
The mother has told KPCW and others Wrona was intending her harm too by assaulting her daughter. The survivor's mother campaigned publicly for a harsher punishment in the weeks before sentencing.
Numerous members of the public, both Summit County residents and the mother’s friends from around the country, wrote letters to the court objecting to what they characterized as letting a privileged man off the hook.
“The county attorney's office will not sacrifice the emotional and mental wellness of an already-traumatized human being on the altar of public cries for maximum penalties,” Olson said. “Nor should we expect this valiant young woman to be responsible for insuring Joe Wrona is punished for all the other wrongs and insults the community believes he has committed."
One of Wrona’s defense attorneys, Greg Skordas, told the judge his client has taken accountability for his actions. Skordas called the year sentence “harsh” but “fair.”
Wrona himself spoke at his sentencing, as was his right. He said he was remorseful and trying to atone.
“I'm going to be led away in handcuffs in a few minutes because that's how much remorse I have,” Wrona said.
“Mr. Wrona, you're going to be led away in handcuffs in a few minutes because you committed second degree felony forcible sexual abuse,” Mrazik countered, after which some spectators applauded.
Mrazik scolded the applauders and had them removed from his courtroom before proceeding with sentencing.
The full terms of the sentence include 48 months of supervised probation, one year of that in the county jail.
Wrona is not likely to see prison time for the sexual assault unless he violates the terms of his probation or the protective order, which bars him from seeing his daughter for the rest of his life.
Wrona has 30 days to file an appeal. Skordas says his client does not intend to, and he expects Wrona will be disbarred.
