Beth Modica Scandal

The Beth Modica Scandal is a sex scandal involving then Sloatsburg, New York prosecutor Beth Modica.

Modica

Modica is a graduate of St. John's University School of Lawciteweb|title=Suffern Mounties Hockey Team|url=http://www.zimbio.com/pilot?ID=&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fhitsusa.com%2Fblog%2F456%2Fbeth-modica%2F&ZURL=%2FSuffern%2BMounties%2BHockey%2BTeam%2Ftrackers%2F4%2FBeth%2BModica%2BBlog%2BMentions|accessdate=2008-03-13] and Deputy Town Attorney for the town of Sloatsburg from 2004-2007. Her husband Paul Modica is the Chief of Police for Spring Valley, New York. Modica was also a one-time President of the Sloatsburg Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association. The Modicas had four children.citenews|title=Spring Valley chief's wife named in scandal|url=http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080120/NEWS03/801200376/1019/news03|author=Steve Lieberman|coauthors=James Walsh|date=2008-01-20|accessdate=2008-03-13|publisher=The Journal News] She was 44 at the time of the scandal.citeweb|title=Technorati: Discussion about "This Is Either the Greatest or the Worst Hockey Mom of All-Time"|url=http://technorati.com/posts/cVEFB8Vjvnpl8LuWqGg4ltokSvBRooehmzKseDODB50%3D|date-2008-01-23|accessdate=2008-03-13|work=Technorati]

Allegations

Modica faced 35 allegations, 30 misdemeanors and 5 felonies, including statutory rape, criminal sex acts, sexual abuse, and endangering children. She was alleged to have engaged underage boys in fellatio, and to have provided them cannabis and beer. The incidents allegedly occurred at three swimming pool parties at the Modica residence, while Paul Modica was away for the summer (the couple are now separated). The alleged victims were 15- and 16-year old boys who attended Suffern High School (contrary to common belief they were not on the Suffern Hockey Team). The New York Post attended a Suffern Mounties Ice Hockey game, asking questions about the incident and wrote an article that proved to be totally untrue with none of the players being involved in the incident. She pleaded not guilty to all charges. The prosecutor in the case was Tom Zugibe, while Modica's attorney was Gerard Damiani. [citenews|title=Beth Modica unlikely to take a plea in teen-sex case|date=2008-03-11|url=http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008803110394|last=Weiner|first=Randi|accessdate=2008-03-13|publisher=The Journal News]

She was offered a plea deal that would send her to jail for 1 to 3 years.

Timeline, Background, Sentencing

Rumors of the incident(s) began circulating the high school in late 2007. The investigation began on December 31. Modica faced indictment on January 22, 2008.

On April 12, 2008, Modica pled guilty to having sex with two minors. The judge ordered Modica held in Rockland County jail until a pre-sentence hearing (in June 2008) and thereafter sentencing (July 2008). Jail officials transferred Modica to an upstate facility for her protection.

Based on her guilty plea, Modica was disbarred, and faced 10 years post-release supervision, registration as a sex offender and payment of approximately $1,300 in DNA testing and related court fees.

Modica's lawyer, Gerard Damiani of New York City, hoped to persuade acting state Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bartlett to sentence Modica to county jail time or probation. Damiani argued that he found fifteen cases, including several in New York, involving persons convicted of nonviolent felonies, including statutory rape, who received sentences ranging from probation to 1 year in jail.

He also said Modica suffered what psychiatrists classified a "disassociation." He cited her civic works, life as a mother and a prosecutor and municipal lawyer, and jobs she lost because of her actions.

"Her conduct was an aberration," Damiani said. "She has acknowledged her responsibility since the beginning. She didn't want to put her family or any of the quote unquote victims through a trial." Damiani said matrimonial and custody issues delayed her decision to plead guilty, as well as her desire to avoid a state prison sentence. Damiani said requested the pre-sentence hearing to press for a lesser sentence and to discuss any potential issues with the presentence report. Usually, lawyers receive those reports a few days before sentencing. "We hope to convince the judge to give her a more reasonable sentence," he said.

Thereafter, at the pre-sentencing hearing in June 2008, Modica admitted that she had intercourse with a 16-year-old boy in her bed and gave oral sex to a 15-year-old boy in the bathroom of her house. She had been accused of providing oral sex to the 16-year-old on several other occasions. She softly answered "yes" to at times graphic questions about her sexual acts from Supervising Assistant District Attorney Dominic Crispino.

Modica further admitted she knew that both Suffern High School boys - friends of her eldest son -were in fact underage when she had sex with them. As she pled guilty, Modica's mother and brother listened in the courtroom, as did her estranged husband, Spring Valley Police Chief Paul Modica, seated on the opposite side of the courtroom.

Modica was originally indicted on 5 felony sex counts, 5 misdemeanor counts of third-degree sexual abuse and twenty-five misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The endangerment counts involved providing or sharing of alcohol and marijuana with the 2 boys and 5 other minors, in July and August 2007. She did not plead to those counts.

Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe had earlier stated that a state prison sentence was the harshest punishment he knew of for such a case. However, Zugibe said he considered Modica a child predator and the 2 males, her victims, even if they and others do not.

Zugibe has noted the law doesn't distinguish gender when defining victims. "The fact that the victims are males as opposed to females is irrelevant," Zugibe said. "The psychological impact on the male victim is not always known. I am certain there are long-term effects on the kids."

Women also can commit an act rape by sex with force or deception to make a man (or adolescent male) engage in a non-consensual penetrative sexual act. According to Court TV's Crime Library, women commit about 10% of all sexual offenses and their abuse often involves their own child or children, which is incest. Several widely publicized cases of female-male statutory rape in the United States involved school teachers raping their teenage male students under their consent.

Curtis St. John, national president of MaleSurvivor in Westchester, said the teenagers likely will feel the effects of being sexually preyed upon in their 30s. Older women often target younger men for a sense of power. St. John called it wrong thinking to believe these teenagers are "lucky" for "scoring with an older woman." He said many of those young men grow up to have bad relationships with women, suffer from depression and other issues involving control over others. "Hopefully when they are in their 30s, married twice, have problems relating to their children and can't maintain a relationship, they will explore these teenage events as a reason with a therapist," St. John said.

St. John hesitated to characterize Modica's then-potential prison sentence as either too lenient or too harsh, saying he had confidence in the region's prosecutors to make the right decision.He further opined that post-release supervision for sex offenders is not easy, but therapy and attention from a probation officer can make a repeat offense less likely. "I am not concerned about what she gets [i.e., her sentence] as long as she gets the help she needs, not the help she wants," St. John said.

Ultimately, on July 9, 2008, Bartlett sentenced Modica to 2 years in state prison on the charge of statutory rape and criminal sex acts, 10 years' probation, sex offender registration and 10-year orders of protection for the benefit of the two male victims. [Associated Press, 07-09-08, http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnUnolcPsI_1ak32dYbsjdAvXMLQD91QJA282]

References