Appellate court reduces sentence of female school employee who had sex with student

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GOSHEN – A woman, who worked as a paraprofessional at a school and had sex with a 16 ½ year old male student at a hotel, had her three-year state prison sentence reduced by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court.

In a non-jury trial, Orange County Court Judge William DeProspo convicted Mary Thompson of two counts of third-degree rape, third-degree criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child for taking the victim to a hotel and having sexual intercourse and oral sex with him.

She was sentenced to a total of three years in prison followed by 10 years of post-release supervision.

The appellate court, “as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice,” reduced the sentence to incarceration of five months followed by 10 years of felony probation. The case was remanded back to county court “for imposition of sex offender conditions and other appropriate conditions of probation.”

The appellate decision, dated January 8, 2020, said, “The sentence imposed, which is at the upper end of the legal sentencing range, is harsh and excessive given that this was the defendant’s first criminal conviction, and in light of the defendant’s strong family and community ties, her lengthy employment history, and her mental health history.”

The court modified the sentence “exercising our interest of justice jurisdiction.”




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