How to read the crime blotter by Andrew Vachss

Original Article		Analysis
A child molester being sued for moving back next door to one of his victims after getting out of jail is blaming the victim for any injuries she suffered as a result of the 2003 attack at her Carmel home.		How is a rapist a “child molester”? See “Watch Your Language.”

Mario Caruso, who sexually assaulted the girl when she was 8 along with her 9-year-old friend, claims in a court filing this week that the girl’s injuries, if any, were the result of “culpable conduct” by her and her family members.		Was the “culpable conduct” the father’s agreement NOT to report this in exchange for those “loans” mentioned in the seventh paragraph?

Neither Caruso, 63, nor his lawyer, William Spain, could be reached for comment Thursday. The filing asks that the lawsuit be dismissed and does not elaborate on why Caruso is blaming the victim and her family.		*Not that* hard to understand, right?**

On Sunday, The Journal News reported that the girl, now 19, was suing Caruso in state Supreme Court in Putnam County for the assault and moving back next door in 2011, alleging he disregarded the “substantial probability” it could cause her “severe emotional distress.” Her lawyer, Niall MacGiollabhui, was shocked at Caruso’s response.		*The victim is now an adult. Who hired the lawyer for her? Is this a contingency case? Does this pharmacist* have any assets?**

“For a convicted pedophile to blame an 8-year-old girl and her family for the suffering his sexual abuse of that girl has (caused) is beyond depraved,” he said. “For that girl to know that such a sick monster is her next door neighbor is horrifying.”		There is no such thing as a “convicted pedophile.” The girl’s own [?] lawyer is conceding that the offender is “sick.”

Caruso, a married pharmacist and longtime family friend when he assaulted the girl, was trusted to be alone with her and other neighborhood children, her father has said. He played games with the neighborhood children, did arts and crafts with them and invited them to do chores and gardening at his home, paying them small amounts of money, the father said.

Caruso was arrested in September 2009 by Putnam County sheriff’s deputies after a Mahopac school official reported the assault. The girl’s father was aware of it, convincing Caruso more than a year earlier to sign a confession and forgive him from paying back loans. Prosecutors estimated the loan amount between $20,000 and $50,000. The father said the loans had nothing to do with him not reporting the assault. Rather, he said, he didn’t want his daughter subject to media scrutiny and public humiliation.		*The school official was a MANDATED REPORTER. Otherwise, it never* gets reported. Yet there are those who oppose expanding those required to report.**

Caruso, a Level 3 sex offender, the category considered most likely to re-offend, fought in court to move back home after being released in May 2011 from the Putnam County jail, where he served 16 months for three counts of first-degree sexual abuse. Listed as a violent sex offender, he claimed he struggled to find a place to live, as he was being kicked out of motels, even sleeping in a van in a law office parking lot. Caruso convinced Judge Albert Lorenzo to permit the move, removing a requirement in an order of protection that he stay 1,500 feet from the girl. The girl didn’t want Caruso returning, writing in a letter to the court that he showed no remorse and it “will induce panic when I hear any car in his driveway or hear his garage door open or hear him talking to his wife or mother.”		Classic example of “charge bargaining.” NY Penal Code, Section 130.35 Rape in the first degree. A person is guilty of rape in the first degree when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person: 1. By forcible compulsion; or 2. Who is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless; or 3. Who is less than eleven years old; or 4. Who is less than thirteen years old and the actor is eighteen years old or more. Rape in the first degree is a class B felony. a Class B felony is punishable by an indeterminate sentence, with a top of 25 years per count. *This human was clearly* guilty of Rape 1st, see sub-sections (3) and (4) above. 130.65 Sexual abuse in the first degree. A person is guilty of sexual abuse in the first degree when he or she subjects another person to sexual contact: 1. By forcible compulsion; or 2. When the other person is incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless; or 3. When the other person is less than eleven years old; or 4. When the other person is less than thirteen years old and the actor is twenty-one years old or older.** Sexual abuse in the first degree is a class D felony. A Class D Felony is punishable by an indeterminate sentence of 1-3 years (!!!)

Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy’s office didn’t object to the move, suggesting it was easier to supervise Caruso at a fixed address. The girl is seeking an unspecified amount of money in the lawsuit filed last month, alleging she suffered physical, emotional and psychological injuries. More specifically, she claims she has been depressed, lacked trust in others and had “intrusive memories of the abuse.” Her father has told The Journal News that she wishes she could make Caruso disappear.		How could he object without calling attention to the fact that right now, you’ve got six figures worth of registered sex offenders that nobody knows the whereabouts of. But there’s no federal funds to track them down. There’s no federal will to incarcerate them for the crime of absconding. So what’s the point of a registry? For more on that same issue, read this CNN transcript. (And search “Vachss” for the correct section.) Levy also wanted to avoid the contrast between “Caruso, a Level 3 sex offender, the category considered most likely to re-offend” and that Sweetheart Sentence.