Posted on 07/09/2008 9:02:51 PM PDT by neverdem
NEW CITY, N.Y. ― A former Rockland County prosecutor was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison and 10 years probation for having sex with teenage boys. Yet perhaps the worst of all for Beth Modica is the public shame heaped on her by her own daughter.
Modica arrived in court knowing she'd be facing a judge and prison bars for a significant period of time, but the 44-year-old mother of four probably didn't know she'd face a painful public repudiation by her 16-year-old daughter Danielle.
"She certainly understands that the daughter was angry right from the beginning, but to come out and recommend that your mom go to state prison, that's a pretty devastating happening," said Gerard Damiani Modica's attorney.
Last summer at her home in Sloatsburg, Modica gave her children and their friends beer and marijuana and engaged in sex with two young men, including her daughter's boyfriend.
Modica cried as her daughter described pounding on a bathroom door while her mother seduced and performed oral sex on the boyfriend on the other side.
"We were competing for the same 15-year-old boy. What kind of person does this to her child? She should be punished for the awful things she has done," Danielle said during the courtroom proceeding. "I was betrayed by both of them."
At one point the judge said, "Your daughter's boyfriend? That's disgusting."
Prosecutor Dominick Crispino also read a letter from Modica's son Joseph, who told his mother, "I am truly ashamed and disgusted with you."
Modica's 12-year-old son, Nicholas, also wrote to request prison time for his mother, saying, "I need to know when she gets out of jail it will be safe for me to be around her."
Listening to it all was Leslie Brown, whose 16-year-old son Modica had pleaded guilty to raping.
"I'm devastated for their family as well as my own. We're all victims," she said, calling Modica a "sly and manipulative sexual predator."
Modica tearfully apologized, saying she "I am truly sorry and will be eternally remorseful."
Her lawyer said unexplained emotional problems caused her to commit the crimes. She will serve time in a prison that specializes in treating sex offenders.
Modica's estranged husband is the Spring Valley police chief. The judge, who called Modica a "disgusting monster," said their home should have been the ultimate safe place for teens, but instead it became a place of betrayal.
Besides two years in state prison for Modica's guilty plea to statutory rape and criminal sex act, the judge imposed 10 years probation, sex offender registration and 10-year orders of protection for the two boys she had sex with.
While I do not approve of Modica’s actions let’s get this straight: adult women do not rape sixteen year old boys. Having been a sixteen year old male many years ago I know for a fact that unless Modica pointed a gun at him, the boy was not raped. He did it willingly.
Cmon guys...smoke some weed and drink some booze and she could very possibly be not guilty
Add in, a very dark room with a hole in the wall maybe
A bale of weed, a keg of beer and 15 year old gonads still wouldn't make me hit that.
Puke, more likely.
Oh, I don't know... I vaguely remember being 15, and IIRC, "The crack of dawn wasn't safe around me!"
Mark
“Not even that good-looking”? You might want to “wordsmith” that one base on the above picture, because “good looking” and this woman should not be used in the same century much less sentence.
I agree. For years I have argued that for cop cases. If a perp who attacks, kills a cop is given a greater sentence (even a death sentence where Joe Public being off'd would not result in same) then why is a cop, who is in the public trust, not given a greater sentence when he breaks the law? This same argument should hold true for anyone involved in law enforcement or in a job of great public trust. My two cents... As well, this woman is absolutely disgusting. I mean her daughter is pounding on the bathroom door to stop her mother from giving oral to a guy she is dating is incredible. How little this jerk must think of her daughter to do that, never mind the kid she is giving the BJ to is underage...I mean, this woman is bottom of the barrel.
Yeah, I can see them putting an actress in there that looks exactly like Katherine Harris.
Yes, you’re suppose to mature with time.
While in general I agree with you, the law states otherwise. Seems some prosecutorial discretion would have been in order, though. I'm sure there's more to the story, and a much larger picture at work here.
Whenever these stories come out, I'm reminded of a commentary I read a few years back. It was during the Catholic Sex Scandals, where "Kids as old as 17 were being taken advantage of". The commentator said that he "Celebrated his 17th birthday...in a landing craft on the way into Iwo Jima" (lied about his age to get into the USMC) and that "If someone had tried to take advantage of him, they'd lose some teeth."
The media endlessly infantilizes our youth, while simultaneously trying to grow them up too fast. No wonder kids are so screwed up nowadays, with the mixed messages they constantly get.
She looks like John Kerry in drag.
The boys must have been blind drunk.
What a dog.
Skip the “in drag” part.
That’s funny.
Naw, there's no sex discrimination, is there ?
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