Posted on 08/03/2006 4:33:40 AM PDT by Abathar
CLEVELAND -- It was probably not a defense the court had heard before.
A suburban Cleveland man accused of sexually assaulting nine disabled boys told a judge Wednesday that his apartment was a religious sanctuary where smoking marijuana and having sex with children are sacred rituals protected by civil rights laws.
The admitted pedophile offered a surprising defense Wednesday to 74 charges of rape, drugs and pandering obscenity to minors.
Appearing in an Ohio court for a pretrial hearing, Phillip Distasio, 34, of Rocky River, Ohio, said he was a pedophile.
He told the judge, "I'm a pedophile. I've been a pedophile for 20 years. The only reason I'm charged with rape is that no one believes a child can consent to sex. The role of my ministry is to get these cases out of the courtrooms."
Distasio, a self-professed pagan friar, is representing himself on 74 charges. He said he's the leader of a church called Arcadian Fields Ministries, and that some of his congregants are among the victims in his case.
The judge told Distasio to confine his arguments to secular laws at his trial, scheduled to begin Sept. 11.
"If you want to challenge the law, that's your right to do so," Judge Kathleen Sutula said. "But we're going to follow the laws of Ohio in this courtroom."
Cuyahoga County Bill Mason said Distasio was arrested after he wanted to write a blog for the Lakewood Library. Officials noticed something was wrong and notified Rocky River police.
Distasio was arrested on charges he molested two disabled boys he was tutoring at his home. He's also accused of raping seven other autistic children at a Cleveland school for special-needs students, The Plain Dealer reported. All but one of the boys was under 13, which carries a mandatory life-in-prison sentence if he is convicted, the paper reported.
Police said they found journals at Distasio's apartment in which he described his illegal activities, along with child pornography and videotapes of him engaged in sex with boys, The Plain Dealer reported
"Not all pedophilia is bad, and sex [with boys] can be healthy," Distasio told the court.
According to the journals, two of Distasio's victims were so helpless they could never tell anyone what happened.
"The defendant describes acts in which he had autistic children and he did what I would call sadistic sexual acts with these children," said Mason.
The school he ran from his apartment was called Class Cutters. According to Distasio's Web site, students and parents chose the curriculum in the school for unique children.
But prosecutors said it was little more than a trap that snared one victim and then another.
"Like all predators, he used this one child to bring other children to him and that's what was happening, and that's how he got his second victim," said Mason.
And prosecutors believe there may be more victims.
Distasio has a history of working with children dating back 10 years.
Prosecutors said he could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
Why do they hate us?
NAMBLA. It's their whole mission statement right there. Like you, I really can't make futher comment.
Dunno 'bout justice, but thugs killing thugs is a net gain for society.
Nope, the way things are going there will be a time when all these people will have their life sentances reduced for crimes like this I think.
I don't know exactly what you want to say. But I agree with it 100%.
My views start with a very dull rusty knife and end with a feces smeared bandage. They also involve several hungry rats and a well placed tidbit or two.
The scary thing is that his view about adult/ child sex sometimes being beneficial and consensual is endorsed by more than a few academics. Don't be surpised to see the next " rights" movement being for pedophiles.
Me, I think the only right they have is a gag in the mouth so we don't have to hear their screams when they get what they deserve.
Read the headline and thought it was Ted Strickland.
Without the framework of God, each person can make up whatever they want? Fine. Here's a tenant in my made up religion - All pedophiles should be put to death. Wonder what this scumbag would think of my religion?
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
I don't even need to comment. Just imagine. This may qualify for a Moral Absolutes ping as well, since the fiend is using "religion" as an defense for his sick crimes.
Again, it is a shameful, disgusting crime that pedophiles are not executed as soon as it is clear that they have indeed violated a child ONE TIME.
When is real justice going to start? When is this false justice system ruled by enablers and sickos going to fall?
Ping me, DBeers, scripter or wagglebee if you want on/off this pinglist.
I say we make him a pagan FRYER!
Moral Absolutes Ping as well. Note that this sick fiend is using "religion" as a defense. Where is justice?
Ping me or wagglebee if you want on/off this list.
DISTASTE(io)!!
Name says it all.
Electrified cattleprod applied till room temperature should say the last.
I'm really getting sick and mad. I wonder when vigilante justice is going to start happening, since there seems to be no other kind.
When will people realize, pedophilia is a part of the homosexual lifestyle?
Is it just me, or does this (expletive deleted) look like PeeWee Herman?
"Celebrate Perversity"
It is celebrated throughout the country--have you ever seen a gay parade? Chicago just hosted the "gay games." Pictures are revolting enough, but to actually be there is beyond the pale.
Cut it off, then hang him.
The devil's been around for a loooooooong time.
What's new is his attempt to pervert the notion of "rights."
He has succeeded in confusing the issue in most people's minds. Rights, properly understood, represent what is due to us as human beings because of our human nature, irrespective of time, place, culture or system of government.
"Rights" have come to be understood more as a set of human desires, codified in law, or contracted for.
Thus, people can claim the "right" to kill their own children through abortion, the "right" to marry someone of the same sex, or the "right" to molest children, however divorced these "rights" may be from the true and objective nature of things.
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