Upon his arrest in 2013, Ryan Pontello, the Palermo Pedophile, informed detectives that he experienced arousal in relation to young girls. The Oswego County District Attorney’s Office deemed his likelihood of re-offending insufficient to influence their decision in prosecuting his case.
Ryan Pontello’s history is being scrutinised following his arrest by Onondaga County officials this month for the rape of a five-year-old girl in the Town of Clay and the abuse of a three-year-old earlier this spring. District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick stated that he expects additional charges when his team examines Ryan Pontello’s phone.
This is not his initial encounter with claims of child sexual abuse; in 2013, the I-Team discovered that he was convicted of misdemeanour sexual assault involving a young girl in the Town of Palermo, Oswego County. He was first apprehended on a felony charge; he accepted a plea agreement, resulting in a sentence of 60 days in incarceration and 6 years on probation.
He was mandated to register as a sex offender. Prosecutors employed a conventional sex offender risk assessment technique, an instrument developed 30 years ago, to assign him a score based on factors such as his age, the age of his victim, the seriousness of the offence, and additional characteristics. His cumulative score was 65, categorising him as a level one offender, indicating the little chance of recidivism. He was 10 points short of the level two designation, which would have facilitated quicker access to his information on the state’s online registry.
Not addressed in that rubric-like tool is the startling admission Ryan Pontello made to investigators. After initially trying to lie about what he had done, he told state troopers “I have a a problem that I am attracted to young girls… I am sorry for this happening and I need help for my problem.”
He also admits that he had attempted to look up pornographic images of children as young as 11-years-old. Court documents uncovered by the I-Team showed that a woman living with him at the time told police that she found attempted searches for girls aged three, five and eight.
Experts like Rick Trunfio, who spent decades prosecuting sex crimes in Onondaga County, said that these kind of admissions should have made a difference in Ryan Pontello’s offender level. He said that a process known as a “departure” can be requested by the defense, prosecutors or the judge themselves based on these kinds of variables.
“The fact that he made admissions that he is strongly attracted to young girls should have been a red flag for the prosecutor to include in the risk assessment when recommending a level 1 or a level 2 and certainly for the judge when making the ultimate determination,” Trunfio said.
Defense attorney and former prosecutor Brian DeCarlis said the departure system is in place in part to help account for holes in the rigid numbers involved in the risk assessment tool.
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