Posted on 06/16/2004 9:25:09 AM PDT by NYer
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) _ A father was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison Wednesday for raping his 11-year-old daughter, who later hung herself.
Timothy Lucie, 46, stood stoically as Onondaga County Judge William Walsh imposed back-to-back sentences of 25 years to life for his conviction on first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy charges. Lucie said nothing before Walsh sentenced him. His wife, Andrea Lucie, hurried from the courtroom in tears, refusing to talk to reporters. She testified in her husband's defense.
``In all my years on this planet, I've never been at a loss for words. Today, I am,'' Walsh said. ``My sentence will have to speak for me.'' Walsh said he would recommend that Lucie serve his sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility, in a special program that isolates inmates who may be at risk from other prisoners because of the crimes they committed.
Lucie was convicted last month following an eight-day trial. He also was convicted of endangering the welfare of a child. He has appealed his conviction. Lucie was accused of sexually assaulting his daughter, Valerie, in the shower at their Syracuse home Sept. 30. Hours later her 8-year-old brother found her hanging from her bedpost by a dog collar and leash in what police said was an apparent suicide.
A furniture business owner, Lucie confessed to the rape after a six-hour interrogation on Oct. 13. He then recanted as police prepared to put the confession on videotape. Lucie claimed his confession was coerced by police, who he said threatened to arrest his wife and take away his four younger sons if he didn't admit to the sexual attack. Defense attorney Ken Moynihan had little to say, other than objecting to prosecutors' characterization that Lucie was not remorseful about this daughter's death.
Moynihan said Lucie ``deeply misses'' his daughter, but prosecutors never gave him the chance to properly grieve because they immediately made him the subject of a criminal investigation. Chief Assistant District Attorney Christine Garvey asked Walsh to give Lucie 50 years in prison, saying he ``deserved every second in state prison that this court can sentence him to.''
Garvey said there is typically a time at sentencing when family members are allowed to speak on behalf of the victim. ``But there is no one from Valerie Lucie's family to be that child's voice. It is truly sad. An 11-year-old is dead and she doesn't have anybody from her family _ not her aunts or her uncles, or her grandparents, to say what a wonderful child she was, how she was loved and how she will be missed,'' Garvey said.
Instead, Garvey read a short letter composed by Leslie Plucknette, Valerie's former third-grade teacher at Fairbanks Road Elementary School in the Churchville-Chili School District near Rochester. Plucknette sat through the entire trial and was in her usual second-row seat for Wednesday's sentencing. Plucknette's letter described Valerie as an engaging, excitable child, ``a petite, little girl with a smile as wide as her braids were long.'' Plucknette said Valerie ``sang with the voice of an angel,'' and was the star of her third-grade class' performance of ``Charlotte's Web.''
After court, Plucknette stood in the hallway, showing off a photograph of Valerie at a party with some friends. ``If he stays in jail for 50 years, that would be justice,'' she said.
Several jurors also attended the sentencing. Foreman Michael Spado said he, too, was there for Valerie. ``That poor little girl only had 11 years. Fifty years is a satisfactory sentence but it can't bring Valerie back,'' Spado said. Spado said the jury was not allowed to consider Valerie's death as it deliberated the case. However, Spado said he personally held Lucie responsible for Valerie's death.
AP-ES-06-16-04 1209EDT
I read somewhere that the mother lost custody of her 4 sons. If that is the case surely something more is going on that we just dont know about yet.
What, is it like a Supermax?
"The investigations uncovered many serious abuses of justice on the part of the local law enforcement agencies and the state Department of Health and Social Services."
"No physical evidence was ever found to prove the allegations. The charges were based on the testimony of children and adults, most of whom later recanted. The moral character of the "star witnesses" was extremely questionable. One had tried to kill her foster father because he refused to allow her to commit immoral acts in his home. The other key witness, an eleven-year-old girl who was in the care of the chief Police investigator Robert Perez, has an uncontrollable rage which has caused tremendous damage to others. Those who made confessions were either illiterate or have IQs in the 60s or 70s. One lady was tested at 58."
"Her confession was given after she had been without sleep for two days. She was questioned for about six hours by Detective Perez, beginning at midnight. She names people in her confession that she didn’t even know and she recanted almost immediately."
"Three CPS workers were fired when they tried to warn the agency that one of the young witnesses was lying and that the alleged child sex ring charge was possibly bogus."
Thanks for posting this.
Hate to say it, but with no semen or DNA evidence, I couldn't vote to convict. The confession is disgusting, but the manner in which it was obtained is just too iffie.
And, as already pointed out in this thread, OJ was found innocent by a jury. So what's your point?
Yes indeed. There is also a Clinton County.
No argument with what you said except that the Syracruse police department probably has few KGB agents on their payroll.
If such methods were employed however, the defence has good cause to request a retrial, and the request will likely be granted.
Wonder if a lie detector test was administered by an independent entity, and what the results may have been?
I understand where you and those who are arguing accordingly are coming from. Being friendly with children-even your own is risky business these days and yet the genuine threat to children from perverts has never been greater.
Drawing that line is easy, but determining who has stepped over that line, and determining just who makes that determination, is a very weighty problem.
I missed this in the thread. Can you point me to it please?
>
> The mob mentality on this site is frightening as well.
>
THANK YOU!
The reason innocent people end up in jail, especially in situations like this, is due to the same mob mentality that we are witnessing right here in FR. Pure emotional reaction to the way the story is told.
(I'm not making a claim that the man is innocent, just that the story at face value has some serious problems. See my other posts.)
Not a supermax, but a Max A prison. It's known as one of the toughest prisons in the system to do your time at. The prison is situated in Clinton County, which is in the extreme northern part of the state. If I were a con, I wouldn't want to be sent there.
"Little Siberia" LOL!
To assume his innocence based on what is not reported in a 500 word article is both illogical and preposterous.
It is also illogical to try to generalize an incorrect verdict in one trial to all trials. The vast majority of jury verdicts in criminal cases are spot on.
Yeah, we used to call the officers and brass that were promoted from there "frozen brains."
No eleven year old girl, in my opinion, either needs nor wants help in undressing for the shower. His involvement in her undressing, indicated to me that he somehow cornered her in the bathroom and was undressing her against her will.
I am afraid that sentence is not enough but I don't think he will make it very long.
People like him are considered the lowest form of vermin in the prison hierarchy and mark my words he will pay for this crime.
According to the prosecution and the Syracuse Police Department, in his written confession, Lucie described in great detail raping and sodomizing his daughter.
I do not believe for one second that the police would be able to intimidate a written confession out of him. He freely recanted (a lie, I am sure) when it came time to videotape the confession.
And before citing the "threats to take away his children", note it says he described in great detail what he had done.
Unspeakable.
Active imagination? If so, that is sick all by itself and not the sign of anyone with a "healthy social life".
Your evidence the written, detailed, statement was "coerced"?
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