24/03/2023
FINAL POST
There have been a lot of questions about the specifics of the sentencing, how it will work, whether it’s fair, etc. Folks have big, genuine, varied, and valid feelings about this case, so I won’t tell you what to think about whether it was fair. What I can do is give you some facts and thoughts that might help you reach your own conclusions and get some peace.
His full sentence is this: Sentenced to 120 months for Count 1s and 48 months on Count 2s to run consecutively for a total of 168 months in the custody of Bureau of Prisons. Supervised release for 15 years for each count to run concurrently. See Judgment for standard, mandatory and special conditions of supervised release. Fine waived. JVTA Fine-$5,000. SPA $100 per count for a total of $200 due immediately. Here’s what that means.
PRISON TERM: He will serve 14 years in prison on top of the 3.5 he already spent in jail. Since the judge could have credited him the 3.5 years he already spent in jail, but didn’t, it’s like she sentenced him to 17.5 years. The federal guidelines are 15-20. The judge agreed to write a recommendation that he be sent to a psychiatric hospital/prison for s*x offenders in FCI Petersburg, in Hopewell, VA. So, he may or may not be there for some or all of his sentence. If you want to track where he is, inmate locations are public record and searchable at BOP.gov.
SUPERVISED RELEASE: When he gets out of prison at age 77, he will have no career, no pension, and no savings. He spent his pension and savings on his defense lawyer. Because he will be a registered s*x offender, and an ex-convict with no money, he will have very limited options as to where he can work and spend time. It seems probable, from several pieces of information that came out about his personal life, that he will probably have difficulty finding a place to live. Many people in similar circumstances prefer prison.
FINES: The $5000 and $200 fines the judge imposed were mandatory. There were other, larger, monetary penalties the judge could have imposed on the victims behalf, but did not. The victims in this case did not ask the prosecutor to get them money. Those girls and their families made a private decision about what was best for them. If they didn’t want money from him, then it was respectful and appropriate for the US Attorney to not ask for it and for the judge to not order it. As parents and humans, I think we can all reflect on why it might not feel right or helpful to receive money from him for what he did. Certainly, even if we would have chosen differently, we can respect the victims’ and their families’ choices on this topic.
REMORSE: Many of you have been asking whether or not he was actually sorry for what he did. All I can do is tell you the things he said that told me what I needed to know. He began his statement at the sentencing with some heartfelt and moving apologies for what he did. He also expressed some very genuine, internal torture for how he is. Later in his statement, he seemed to ramble and go off script. He talked about how he liked the bodies of the (12/13 year old) girls in his class, that he found them attractive and would photograph them because they were attractive to him. He said that when he did things to them, it was about their bodies, not them. When the judge explained her reasoning for her sentence, and the importance of sentences deterring crimes, she read a quote from him in which he explained to the probation department that he figured he’d get caught eventually, but that he thought he’d only spend 1-2 years in prison, not the rest of his life.
FAIRNESS: This one is so personal to each of us. I can’t begin to answer it for anyone but myself. For me, the sentence he got felt like justice. He’s going to be away from society for a long time and away from children forever, if things go right. That seems like the right outcome, to me.
We owe major gratitude to prosecutor Michael DiGiacomo and Judge Wolford for their professionalism and diligence.
