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
Well, those prosecutors are meanie-heads! This man deserves some sympathy after all he's been through [/sarcasm]
By the time he is released, sex with children will be constitutionally protected.
Absurd.
The article doesn't say, aside from a confession that was recanted (which I consider weak.)
Before anybody flames me, I'm NOT saying the guy is innocent. If there's conclusive DNA evidence, fry him. But I would like to know what the basis for the conviction is.
The evil in this world is so evident, yet the dems fail to recognize that evil exists.
What is surprising is that the article didn't mention any use of DNA evidence to prove his guilt. I would think that the DNA would be used as often as possible for proof of guilt.
Only if he is a complete idiot. Murdering the child could only bring attention to the rape. He had a much better chance of getting away with it if the child went on living.
Why did the mother testify in defense of the father? I'm assuming that the DNA was utterly conclusive... Amazing.
That’s a good question. Was there any physical evidence? The article does not mention any.
Somebody ought to do some serious questioning of those sons. Pedophiles are not known to confine themselves to one victim.
I'm not sure we have all the facts... tragic if true...really a heart breaker!
"...the cause of Valerie’s death has been the source of some controversy. Said to have been suicide, the medical examiner left the manner of death characterized as "undetermined" on her death certificate. Several outside medical experts believe the death was more likely homicide."
Absurd in a common sense absurd way, but if they were not bringing the man up on charges related to her death, than the jury can't consider it. The judge would have instructed them on that point at length. Of course, the jury members aren't idiots, either. They know the girl is dead (otherwise, she would likely have been at the trial). So they no doubt did take that into account -- quietly -- as they deliberated.
Put him in general pop and count the days 'till real justice is done.
Unbelievable. That poor little girl. Rape is such a devastating thing to anyone, but especially a young child. And the so-called "consent" that some give is only a step away.
This should retire the 'Chutzpah' trophy.
Funny, the article doesn't mention DNA evidence. All they mention is that he confessed after six hours of questioning, with the possibility that the police used questionable tactics.
Maybe his wife defended him because he's innocent? I don't know the guy, and maybe he's guilty as sin. But when children are involved, emotions run high, and miscarriages of justice have come about. Maybe a prosecutor found out about the suicide, thought something about the father seemed a little sleazy, and told the police to find out what needed to be found out.
This article has a lot of emotions and grief but is short on evidence of guilt. If I was on that jury, I would have voted to acquit if all they had was a confession that was:
1. Acquired by means of lying to the guy that they were going to take his whole family away.
2. Acquired after six hours of questioning, which would make a lot of us start saying things we didn't want to say.
3. Immediately recanted.
Maybe they had more, and the article doesn't say.
In NOBLER times, that guy would've been taken out back and shot like a rabid dog. Sickening.
I can't believe the mother is actually defending this scum of a husband.I have an aunt in Phoenix who used to work in social services with abused children, and interviewing the family was part of her job. In her experience, virtually all the mothers support their husbands, who have some indominatable hold over them.
It looks like a regrettable omission from the article that the DNA evidence wasn't mentioned. The post-mortem would certainly have brought forth conclusive evidence to bring charges and a conviction.
Oh, I know it is correct in a legal sense, but frustrating in the "it's obvious that the rape caused her to kill herself" sense. Actually, I'd bet that the rape was just the last assault in a years-long series of assaults against her by the father. Most kids don't up and kill themselves after a singular event. Poor thing.
The article does leave several obvious questions unaddressed
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