Yet another example of why certain people should not be allowed to have children~Why do I even bother to read the paper!
Mother guilty of molesting daughter
BY ROBERT E. KESSLER
STAFF WRITER
February 27, 2004
A 38-year-old West Hempstead homemaker pleaded guilty yesterday to charges that she and her husband sexually abused their then-6- year-old daughter and videotaped the activities.
'I have let my children down. I have caused a lot of pain to my family and friends. In my heart I can only hope and pray that one day my children can forgive me for my actions,' the woman said in a written statement filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.
In addition to that statement, the woman told U.S. District Judge Leonard Wexler in open court, in admitting her guilt, 'I molested my daughter. ... I had no idea the tape was still around. I thought ... [my husband] had destroyed it. I had asked him to.'
The woman pleaded guilty yesterday to eight counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography. Her name and her husband's are being withheld to protect the identities of their two children.
The woman's attorney, John Wallenstein, of Mineola, said, 'This is a tragic situation for all concerned and particularly the children. ... [My client] accepts responsibility for what she did and will pay a very heavy price.'
Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Bode, a prosecutor in the office of U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf, declined to comment.
The husband, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his daughter in October and is awaiting sentencing, gave the tape to FBI agents in 2001 when they asked him if he had any child pornography during a raid on the couple's home, according to court documents. The agents were taking part in a crackdown on subscribers to an Internet site that distributed child pornography. The sexual abuse and videotaping occurred in May 1998, three years before the raid.
The couple's daughter and their younger son, who was 3 at the time of the sexual abuse against his sister, are being raised by relatives with the parents barred from seeing them. The mother faces 188 to 235 months in prison when she is sentenced. The father faces 168 to 210 months in prison.
