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| Crying for herself. WELS had a female teacher caught in a car with a female student. That story disappeared faster than a July frost. |
Montessori School of New York principal Lina Sinha sentenced in sexual abuse of a student from age 13 - NYPOST.com:
TEARFUL: Lina Sinha weeps at her sentencing yesterday in the sexual abuse of a male student from the age of 13.
She tried arguing that she “faints” and has anxiety, and even that her boy victim had enjoyed it.
But there was no mercy yesterday for Lina Sinha, the beautiful former headmistress of an Upper East Side Montessori school, who was finally sent away to serve at least 2 1/3 years in prison for her twisted and damaging sex affair with a student who was just 13.
“This is a woman of every advantage, and she preyed on her victim for years,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman said as the predatory ex-principal stared glumly down at the defense table.
“She hijacked his life as a child,” the judge said of the victim, who grew up to be a New York City cop and had compellingly taken the witness stand, describing years of trysts on class furniture and in a field-trip van with the Montessori School of New York headmistress he called “Miss Sinha.
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“She did try to destroy his life,” the judge said. “So time has passed, but the victim has not regained the childhood the defendant has stolen for him, and I presume he never will.”
Sinha, 46, had remained free on bail, pending appeal, for the five years since a Manhattan jury convicted her of a depraved predation that might never have been exposed.
The victim came forward only as a police officer in training, after he finally broke off their nine-year “relationship” in 2004 and Sinha embarked on a rampage of vengeance against her former boy toy, including making bogus accusations of assault and rape and repeated 911 calls and Civilian Complaint Review Board allegations.
“This case came at great personal embarrassment to him,” Assistant District Attorney Robert Hettleman, chief of the Manhattan DA’s child-abuse unit, said of the victim, whose courage he praised.
The victim, whose name is being withheld, was a Queens-based, 24-year-old rookie when he testified against Sinha in 2007, and remains a cop, Hettleman said.
But life for the victim and a second male student — on whose rape allegations the original jury had hung — has been far from fun and games, the prosecutors said.
“I was in contact with him for years” after the conviction, the prosecutor said of the victim cop. “It’s been very difficult for him in the interim.”
Sinha spoke briefly, and tearfully, at the proceeding, wasting not a word on apologies or regrets. Instead, she went on about how difficult the past eight years have been for her and her family, and the great sacrifices she had made to become an educator, given her family’s money and “the many doors open to me.”
“Most people thought I did a very good job” in education, she told the judge. “If you deem it fit for me to go to prison, then that is what I will do,” she said.
“I have gone through their life savings,” she complained, referring to her family. “I have gone through my life savings a long time ago.”
Sinha tried through veteran defense lawyer Gerald Shargel to argue for a reduction in sentence. She suffers from glaucoma and diabetes, and has fainting spells and anxiety problems, Shargel told the judge.
“The punishment should fit the crime,” he said, referring to the conduct as “a love affair” and alluding to trial testimony in which the cop had admitted keeping the relationship secret as a boy because he had enjoyed it and didn’t want it to stop.
“There was a love affair that continued,” the lawyer told the judge.
“This was an extended situation,” the judge countered. “Until he was of, quote, ‘legal age,’ he was still being abused, overpowered psychologically.”
“I think the defendant’s sentence is actually remarkably lenient given the continuing offenses,” she said.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/aw_poor_perv_eODtequvsBsNp3CivMcofO#ixzz21XTpE51k
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Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "Montessori School of New York principal Lina Sinha...":
In the wake of the Penn State situation, I did a little follow-up on an issue which you have previously discussed. Particularly, I note that Penn State University has removed the statue of Joe Paterno from the outside of the football stadium.
You have reported on the sex felon, Joel Hochmuth, of the WELS. I leave Mr. Hochmuth's case to the courts and the mercy and love of the Lord Jesus Christ. One would think, wouldn't one?, that the WELS would remove Joel Hochmuth from its public profile. Not so.
Some time in the past Hochmuth interviewed Mark Neumann, a one time congressman and now a candidate for the US Senate. Neumann was given a forum to promote his particular social and political values (which I personally find greatly offensive, but that's not important). Why would WELS keep up Hochmuth and Neumann as a public testimony to its beliefs? Why give the convicted sex offender any public recognition at all?
Neumann, by the way, if apparently very influential in the WELS although it is more than unlikely that he will do anything in the elections.
We have a similar situation in the ELS where an extreme right-wing political candidate for the 1st Minnesota Congressional District (who will go absolutely no where in the election) has become extremely influential in the little synod.
The ELS, however, does not present the interview of a sex offender in its public space. Shame on WELS. Shame on WELS.
Norman Teigen, Layman
Evangelical Lutheran Synod