Man get 50 years in prison for raping daughter who hung herself

AP Wire (direct feed) | June 16, 2004 | WILLIAM KATES

[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

[Graybeard58]

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

Which is real close to what I said in my original reply.

[kpp_kpp]

Agreed. And I'm not making a judgment on the jury - I assume there must have been something else to make it beyond reasonable doubt.

Hopefully this is just a poorly written article and there is no witch hunt going on (speaking as a conservative homeschooling father). But no one speaking on the victim's behalf is another "fishy" signal. The prosecutor should have been able to find someone in this man's life to speak against his character or for the victim.

I know of someone who spent over ten years in prison for murdering his wife and three children based soley on stomach contents to show he must have been present at the time of death. He was release after a second, less political, trial. The original was a which hunt because the father spoke of his family being in a "better place" based on his religious convictions, and did not show "state approved" public mourning. (My parents were friends of the family, still "unsolved": http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0809243210 )

[Graybeard58]

My point was simply that the jury had more info than what's given in this article, nothing else.

[F.J. Mitchell]

"Showers don't do the job." I suspected not.

I don't know why I didn't think of a condum being used. Maybe because I was hoping it was not premeditated.

Taking the use of a condom into consideration and her so called suicide,that could just as easily have been premeditated homicide to cover up the crime (as someone suggested in an earlier post)-this guy may be in a league of evil all his own.

[NYer]

Does the family defend him? What was the evidence against him?

Timothy Lucie

From an earlier television report, covering the trial.

www.news10now.com


Day three of testimony in Lucie trial
Updated: 5/20/2004 7:52 PM
By: Lyndsay Mammen, News 10 Now Web Staff

Thursday was day three of testimony in the trial of Timothy Lucie, and it was an emotional one for jurors.

Lucie is charged with raping and sodomizing his eleven-year-old daughter, Valerie, last year in their Syracuse home. Valerie was found dead a few hours later, hanging from one of her bedposts.

The focus today has been on Lucie's written confession.

Sergeant Tom Connellan of the Syracuse Police Department testified yesterday that Lucie confessed to the crime soon after he was arrested.

According to the prosecution and the Syracuse Police Department, in his written confession, Lucie described in great detail raping and sodomizing his daughter.

Detective David Buske testified as to what Lucie told him when he was arrested.

“He proceeded to take Valerie’s clothes off, help Valerie to remove her clothing, put her in the shower, raped and sodomized her. He threatened to cut her hair if she didn’t comply with what he was telling her. At the end, he told her not to tell anyone. If she did tell anyone, in particular his wife, Andrea Lucie, that Andrea would not believe her…even if she told her mother,” he said.

Lucie later recanted in what was to be a videotaped confession, saying his written confession was a lie.

The defense maintains that police pressured Lucie to confess by threatening to take away his children.

Valerie Lucie

[GovernmentShrinker]

His wife, Andrea Lucie, hurried from the courtroom in tears, refusing to talk to reporters. She testified in her husband's defense.

She deserves 50 years too.

[monday]

"Here's a clue. You cannot coerce me to admitting to raping my daughter when I haven't done it."

Some people are emotionally weaker than others. You should know this though. Anyone can be coerced into confessing anything, true or false, given enough time using the proper techniques. You might not be as tough as you think.

[F.J. Mitchell]

In that case, I agree. Without further evidence, the jury is hearing: "the DA say's-the accused say's" A situation in which the jury most often and rightly so, finds in favor of the accused.

[GovernmentShrinker]

He raped her in the shower -- that's a pretty convenient place for washing away the semen evidence. Or he could even have used a condom.

[monday]

"You could never convince me to confess to a crime against my child if I didn't do it."

Maybe, Maybe not. see my post #87.

[af_vet_rr]

I can't believe the mother is actually defending this scum of a husband.

The woman who killed her kids down in Houston, for a while her husband was defending her (don't know if he's changed his mind since then).

[Hat-Trick]

The article does leave several obvious questions unaddressed

It sure does. Ultimately, we know Who will sort this out.

[F.J. Mitchell]

On the other hand though, Monday, Lucie's story is that he helped his daughter undress for the shower. Before I read that, I as I am sure many others did, assumed that he had caught her already in the shower.

The confession does not sound fabricated.

[Pontiac]

He raped her in the shower -- that's a pretty convenient place for washing away the semen evidence.

Very true. But as you read the rest of the thread you will find that semen is not the only evidence of rape that is missing.

[AppyPappy]

Horsecrap. He's scum. Scum does stupid stuff sometimes.

[NCSteve]

The mob mentality on this site is frightening as well. 90% of the posts on this article are willing to assume this man's guilt, yet the more you read and discover, the more doubt you will have.

A lot of it has to do with the sensationalized way the press reports the story. Your initial introduction to the story was, man charged with rape and sodomy of daughter after she hanged herself. You are told he confessed and later recanted. Consider if the press had reported it more like this: The girl hanged herself and after six ours of intense questioning and threats by police, the man offered a confession to raping and sodomizing his daughter, a confession he recanted almost immediately. It has a different ring at this point. Then, once you learn more facts: no semen, no DNA, no tearing, incidental external bruises, no apparent abnormal family history, the entire episode becomes very mysterious and the assertions of this man's guilt seem far less certain.

This reminds me, in a way, of the Little Rascals Daycare fiasco here in NC. At the time, everyone was absolutely certain the accused were guilty as sin. Only after their lives were ruined and some of them spent years in prison was it discovered that the guilty verdicts were based on nothing more than mob hysteria, the unfounded theories and musings of some irresponsible members of the sociology and psychology fields, and sensationalized reporting by the local and national press.

[BibChr]

Yes, and thank God for that! I am SO glad not to have that job, gladder as the years go by.

Dan

[Mudboy Slim]

Make no mistake, I believe raping yer own daughter should be a capital offense, but I just figgered raping anyone was no longer punishable since we elected--and reelected--the EX-Rapist-in-Chief.

FReegards...MUD

[Hat-Trick]

Absolutely. When He calls, He equips, and only He is capable.