Abusive Stepfather Sentenced to 30 Years

Here's the Register article on the sentencing:

Brian Street sentenced to 30 years in prison
JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

May 24, 2007


Brian Street has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually exploiting his 17-year-old stepdaughter, who confessed to setting her house on fire to end the abuse.

Street, who recently began a hunger strike, allegedly to attract attention to his contention that he set fire to the family home, not Tracey Dyess, was sentenced this morning in federal court in Des Moines.

He received a 30-year sentence, and a 10-year sentence, which can be served at the same time.

In a telephone interview from the Polk County Jail on Monday, Street told The Des Moines Register that on May 7 he stopped ingesting everything but coffee because he wants a new lawyer and a new trial, and for law enforcement officials to take seriously his confession that it was he, not Dyess, who started the March 2005 fire at the family's home in Griswold.

"If they want to lock me up for the rest of my life, they can lock me up for the fire," he said Monday. "But they are not going to classify me as some sick, pathetic pervert that I'm not. I can't live with that. Tracey's all I care about."

Officials investigating the fire that killed Dyess' sister and brother - Jessica Dyess, 13, and Kaleb Dyess, 6 - say Tracey Dyess confessed to pouring the gasoline and lighting the fire as her family slept. In her confession, Dyess said she wanted to stop Street from molesting her.

Investigators found a pile of nude photographs of Dyess in a locked safe in Street's charred bedroom, exactly where Dyess told investigators they would be.

Dyess was convicted of arson and four other felonies and is serving a 45-year sentence at the state women's prison in Mitchellville.