No Jail for Child Rapist in Ohio

In an effort to spare the victims and their families of this child rapist from the further trauma of a trial, the prosecutor accepted a plea agreement. Unfortunately he left sentencing discretion to the judge not realizing that this judge has been infected by the rehabilitation not retribution bug.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge John A. Connor gave no jail time to a 46-year-old man who admitted to sexually abusing two young boys over a three year period.

Connor sentenced Andrew S. Selva last week to five years probation. The first year will be under house arrest with electronic monitoring.

Selva had been indicted in January 2004 on 20 counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition. In a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty in March 2005 to two counts of sexual battery.

A worldwide movement in sentencing theory called Restorative Justice is metastasizing from a reasonable method of instilling a concept of consequences for actions into youth who are beginning to take a criminal path, to one that seeks to replace jail with "rehabilitation." Muskingum County Assistant Prosecutor Ron Welch has received a rude lesson on how quickly this aberration is moving through our system.

"I never told him I didn't ask for prison time," Welch said. "I fully expected him to receive jail time and was extremely upset when he didn't. As a prosecutor, I relied on the judge's discretion to make sure the man paid for his crimes. With the number of years Selva had confessed to abusing young people it was expected he would receive jail time."

So many judges in all levels of our justice system are so addled by nonsense having abandoned to written law for personal notions that no prosecutor can afford to leave any discretion to the judge. The whole reason for mandatory sentencing was to address the leniency of our judges. In the future Mr. Welsh will likely instruct the judges as to the desire of the state to put such people as the man who raped these children in a place where they will not be tempted any longer. Rehabilitation is best left to people who have yet to give their minds so completely over to evil.

In the mean time judges who hand down sentences such as this, and the rapist is again found to have continued his activity on new victims, should suffer some sanction if not removal from the bench. Joe Mammana who is known for his posting rewards for the capture of violent criminals in Ohio is now focusing on having Judge Conner removed.

Basil's