WOMAN GETS 20 YEARS FOR RAPE `SENSELESS CRUELTY' OF CRIMES PROMPTS JUDGE TO NEARLY DOUBLE NORMAL MAXIMUM SENTENCE

Section: THE REGION, October 17, 1997
Page: B2
Author: Jonathan Martin Staff writer

Eunice Eickhoff enjoyed a dozen happy years as the common-law wife of a New Jersey gas station attendant.

Their relationship ended formally Thursday when Eickhoff was sentenced to 20 years in prison for torturing and raping the man with a broomstick.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt banned contact between the two for life, calling the crimes acts of ``deliberate and senseless cruelty.''
The sentence was harsher than normal, duplicating the term Sypolt gave Eickhoff's accomplice on Aug. 8.

Theresa Spickler-Bowe, described as the master-mind of the abuse, is serving a 20-year sentence at the Women's Correctional Facility in Purdy, Wash.

Eickhoff is likely to be sent to a California prison to be near a cousin and away from Spickler-Bowe.

The normal maximum sentence for the crime is 12 years.

Eickhoff's attorney, Doug Boe, had argued for leniency based on her contrite guilty plea and agreement to testify against Spickler-Bowe.

But Sypolt noted the extent of the man's injuries in denying the request.

``This was cruelty that went on in time, in number of incidents, and in intensity,'' Sypolt said.

Eickhoff, Spickler-Bowe and the man moved from Bordentown, N.J., to a northeast Spokane apartment last fall. The three were described as best friends during a two-week trial in June.

Soon after, the women began abusing him for small infractions of house rules, such as being flatulent in the living room.

After one such incident, he was forced to shovel snow in his bare feet and a diaper and dog chain, suffering frostbite.

The women eventually broke his nose, cheekbone and ribs, covered him in purple bruises and burned him with a spatula and butter knife.

The abuse culminated in January, when the women raped him, poured wine on his clothes and kicked him out of the apartment.

``The facts of this case are facts I'll never forget,'' prosecutor Patti Connolly Walker said.

The emergency room doctor who initially treated the man said only car accident victims arrived in worse shape.

Boe said his client found God in jail and was full of remorse.

Eickhoff, her voice stumbling with emotion, said: ``(The victim) and I spent 12 years together. We loved each other. I am truly sorry for what has happened to him. With the will of God, I hope ... he can have some compassion for my part in this action.''

The 42-year-old man was likely a victim of battered man syndrome, emotionally chained to his abusers, Walker said.

He has returned to his original job as a gas station attendant on the New Jersey Turnpike.

"Copyright 1997, The Spokesman-Review. The right to reprint this article has been granted by New Media Ventures, Inc., which administers rights and permissions policies on behalf of Cowles Publishing Company and its publications. Reprint rights to any article are granted in the interest of public discussion and debate. Such rights are generally granted to any person or organization that agrees to adhere to republication guidelines and standard usage fees established by Cowles Publishing Company, including the publication of this disclaimer on all reprinted copies. The grant of a right to reprint in no way constitutes an endorsement by Cowles Publishing Company, its publications or New Media Ventures, Inc., of any product, service, candidate, practice or organization mentioned in any reprinted article."