Man ruled to pay $10 million after years of sexual assault against granddaughter

DES MOINES (WHO) -- A man received just five years probation after admitting he molested his own granddaughter for years.

The girl's mother thought she could get justice by suing Dean Hilpipre and says justice is hard to come by.

“It's something that she will deal with for the rest of her life. The man should be behind bars,” Kasey Hilpipre, the victim's mother, said.

Since the age of two, her daughter was molested by her paternal grandfather on multiple occasions for years. Dean Hilpipre admitted it in open court as a part of his plea deal. His punishment was five years of probation.

"An assistant attorney had decided that he would do a psychosexual evaluation,” Kasey said. “The evaluation came back as the lowest to reoffend. I'm absolutely disgusted by that because it happened for six years. In my opinion, he reoffended over, and over, and over, and over, every year."

Dean Hilpipre was a free man, so Kasey and her mother, Deborah Yanna, tried to go after him with a lawsuit.

"This was the one way we could go to find some sort of justice for her,” Yanna said. “To let her know her life matters, that she's valued."

Dean Hilpipre failed to respond to the lawsuit, so Kasey won by default. Her attorney asked for $1 million. Almost a year later, the judge awarded $10 million.

"He doesn't have $10 million,” attorney Roxanne Conlin said. “But for the rest of his life, we're going to be there. If he wins $1,000 in a poker game, we're going to be there."

"He took more from her than any of us can even imagine,” Yanna said. “$10 million is never going to replace what Dean Hilpipre took from her.”

Dean Hilpipre is supposed to have at least $100,000 the family could claim. He won it through the Iowa Lottery just a few weeks after pleading guilty.

"He is the most lucky, unlucky, disgusting person I have ever met. That's just something I could've never imagined happening, but he did, for $100,000, and that was his mistake,” Kasey said.