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
Good find. Thanks.
According to an article in the Democrat and Chronicle at http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/1016IE23A4N_rape_news.shtml this man was a Christian who homeschooled all his kids. His pastor is supporting him.
None of that proves he's innocent, of course. But let's face it: certain elements of our society love to demonize Christians and homeschoolers.
Also, when we find people doing really sleazy crimes, we usually (but not always) find some long-term patterns. In this guy's case, he seemed to be a pretty normal guy with a successful business and a healthy social life. I'm fully aware people like that can secretly commit horrible crimes, but it's not the normal profile.
Very sad indeed. I'm close to a friend who went through something similiar to this situation.....she and her little sister had been molested by their father for over twelve years before she finally broke down and told her mother.
Her mother in turn took the father to a shrink and left my friend and her sister with no help at all. In fact, my friends mother had her convinced that her father needed more help than she did and that she was going to have to understand that. Her mother even convinced her to not tell the police everything, but for some strange reason, she never even spoke to the police.
It breaks my heart to see children thrown away like this. My friend is now a wife and a mother....she doesn't speak with either parent and she did get herself some help. She's doing good and she's seem pretty happy about her life.
Hold on a sec here!
The article speaks of no evidence that was used to convict him other than a coersed statement that was retracted.
I'd hate to think that it is true but even more cruel would be to be falsely convicted of it.
Put yourself in his shoes as a possibly innocent man and think about it for a minute.
(Maybe it is just a poorly written article, I don't know anything about the case - but based on this article alone something sounds fishy.)
Speaking of that, I thought America had decided that RAPE was no longer a criminal offense...heck, Slick Willie RAPED Juanita Broadrick and we made him President!!
SHEEEESH...MUD
Here's a clue. You cannot coerce me to admitting to raping my daughter when I haven't done it.
Thanks for the pings.
It happened in the shower. Is it possible that all DNA evidence could have been washed away, especially if the shower bead was of the type that can be hand held and the spray directed?
It has made me into a cynic. What they put this family through is heartbreaking. The lies are astounding.
Oh, ugh.
I'm not sure how this is relevant in a criminal trial.
Sorry! Didn't see your post before I posted mine. I guess that's the problem with having so many people post at once.
This sounds like a guy who 1)knew how to cover his tracks pretty well or 2) a pi$$ poor M.E. or 3) a combination of the two.
Regardless, the jury still convicted him and the judge seemed convinced he was guilty as well. Thought I am leery of some "experts", the fact he confessed tells me he did something he felt guilty for. You could never convince me to confess to a crime against my child if I didn't do it.
Not even if you made me wear my underwear on my head or had some butch looking gal ridicule my manhood! :)
It is possible a condom was worn, but having tested for semen in rape cases, showers don't do the job.
It is because a lot of these perverts were molested themselves and they're jealous of these infants' innocent state or they want it for themselves. That is what a convicted child molester told me in conversation. These people are not normal in the head, and if there is no death penalty they should be put far away from children.
That wasn't a jury of his peers, Gray, his peers are men who rape their daughters.
THe Constitution guarantees the accused a speedy trial by an impartial jury-not one's peers. Wouldn't the ilk of this perp just love that?
And a jury of his peers claimed O.J. was not guilty.
Juries are not always right. They can, and do, make decisions based on emotions rather than facts. The system has its faults, but it is the system we have, and probably the best in the world.
But Mud, he was never accused of raping his daughter.
Aptly named.
Translation: Pedophiles who rape children.
"Those are his words, ladies and gentlemen, describing his memory of raping and sodomizing his daughter."
Lucie is charged with raping and sodomizing his 11-year-old daughter, Valerie, hours before her death.
The fact that there is no semen may not mean anything but the fact that there is no tearing of the vagina or rectum of a raped and sodomized 11 year old girl certainly does.
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