Steve Pigeon, the previous Erie County Democratic Celebration Chairman, was sentenced to 364 days in jail after admitting to the sexual abuse of a kid greater than seven years in the past.
The previous political determine had pleaded responsible final month to 1 rely of Sexual Abuse within the First Diploma, a category D violent felony.
The case, which took a big toll on the local people, got here to a decision when Pigeon, 63, obtained his sentence early Friday morning.
Erie County District Legal professional John Flynn underlined the gravity of the crime, which occurred between November and December 2016, and concerned a toddler who was 9-year-old on the time, 2WGRZ reported.
Justice William Boller of the State Supreme Courtroom accepted a plea settlement, endorsed by the sufferer’s household. District Legal professional Flynn famous that this determination was made to keep away from subjecting the sufferer to the stress of testifying in court docket.
In a honest and shifting assertion learn by prosecutors in the course of the sentencing, the sufferer, who was a toddler when the crime occurred, expressed the profound impression the abuse had on her life, stating, “He took away virtually my entire childhood… I want that Gerald Steven Pigeon would spend the remainder of his life in jail for what he did to me, however we don’t all the time get precisely what we would like.”
“The stress of a trial that we nearly had was virtually debilitating,” the sufferer wrote, including, “The day I came upon what had really occurred to me, I bear in mind feeling so disgusted and scared. I needed to go inform my mother, however I bear in mind Steve saying that if I instructed anybody, he would damage my mom.”
Pigeon, who remained silent earlier than the decide throughout sentencing, can be required to register as a intercourse offender upon his launch. Moreover, the court docket issued a closing order of safety for the sufferer and the sufferer’s mom, which can be maintained till December 2031.
This isn’t the primary time the previous Democrat chairman has been concerned in a scandal. According to WKBW, “The previous Erie County Democratic Chairman additionally beforehand pleaded responsible to conspiring to rearrange unlawful donations to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 re-election marketing campaign. He was sentenced to 4 months in jail in connection to that case in July 2022.”