THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406030680
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940603 LENGTH: NORFOLK
Slattery, 25, wanted to see her father, Robert Cole, sentenced to a lengthy jail term for sexually abusing her when she was a child.
{REST} Instead, he received a 12-month jail sentence, at least in part the result of an agreement between Cole and prosecutors that Slattery said she was not aware of.
On Thursday, Circuit Court Judge Thomas R. McNamara sentenced Cole, 51, to five years in prison on each of two counts of sodomy but suspended the terms on the condition that he serve 12 months. Cole pleaded guilty in December and faced five years to life on each charge.
``I wanted him to get five years at least,'' Slattery said after the hearing. ``He'll get six months out of all of this. I just don't feel like it's fair. I feel like my life is going to be this way forever. I'm glad I did this, but I don't like the results.''
Slattery sighed.
``My heart hurts,'' she said.
Before pronouncing sentence, McNamara criticized the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office for making a plea agreement that included the provision that prosecutors would make no statement at Cole's sentencing.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Lauri D. Hogge said she was bound by the agreement made by former prosecutor Patricia West.
``You're in a tough position having that agreement made by someone else,'' McNamara told her Thursday. ``I would suggest this to your office in the future, don't make an agreement that involves you not doing your job. Your job is to present your analysis and your arguments. It just doesn't sit well for you to say you're going to let the court struggle with this.''
Slattery said she thinks her father might have gotten more time had a prosecutor argued on her behalf.
``I really feel like the prosecutors let me down too,'' Slattery said.
Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Charles Griffith said the case was complicated by the fact that the crimes occurred more than a decade ago, and by claims by the defense that law enforcement officials knew about the allegations for years but failed to act.
``Whether we argued sentencing or not, the judge still had the background and could have imposed any sentence he wanted,'' Griffith said. ``I had no expectation that we were going to have the same results as if it had freshly occurred. It's just as bad as it was 10 years ago, but I recognize the reality of how the system would address something that had not been attended to for so long.''
Sentencing guidelines recommended no jail or prison time, Griffith said.
A clinical psychologist testified Thursday that Cole showed remorse and described him as an incest offender, though not a pedophile. Incest offenders have less of a tendency to relapse than pedophiles, the psychologist said.
Cole's attorney, John D. Hooker Jr., argued that his client - himself a victim of child sexual abuse - should be placed on probation.
``This is not a man who's going to violate the law,'' Hooker said. ``Incarceration is of no benefit to society or to Dora.''
But McNamara was not inclined to spare Cole, a merchant seaman, from jail.
``What the court is being told is that an offense has been committed by this man on this woman,'' he said. ``It's going to affect her for the rest of her life. It has to be stopped somewhere.''
Although the judge said he was troubled by the length of time between the offenses and the charges, he said he understood why it took so long.
The daughter ``didn't have the strength or the wisdom of the opportunity at that young age to bring these matters to court at that time. . . . I don't think the passage of the years without charges being brought is unfair to this defendant. . . . I just cannot overlook the duty of this court to impose a sentence that will tell this defendant that he has indeed injured somebody and that he is to be punished for it, and to send a message to others who might think they can treat their children as chattel and never be held accountable.''
Cole's conviction was for offenses that occurred between Jan. 1, 1977, and Dec. 21, 1981.
Slattery told the story of sexual abuse, which she said began when she was 6, to The Virginian-Pilot last year and agreed for her name and photograph to be used.
In 1983, Cole was charged with indecent liberties and pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Virginia Beach for a crime against Slattery. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail, with all the time suspended.
At that same time, he admitted to crimes with his daughter while they lived on Lyons Avenue in Norfolk, according to psychiatric reports. But there were no more criminal charges until Slattery went to Norfolk police in 1992 and asked why he was never punished.
Cole was silent Thursday as a deputy handcuffed him and led him away after the sentencing.
``I enjoyed seeing him handcuffed,'' Slattery said later. ``Wouldn't anyone in my shoes?''
{KEYWORDS} CHILD MOLESTER SEX CRIME TRIAL SENTENCING
by CNB