POUGHKEEPSIE – Forty-nine-year-old Sean Kelly was sentenced to a decade prison by Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McLoughlin on Friday. Kelly had been arrested in January and charged with several counts related to the repeated raping of a daughter of a friend.
The victim, now a thriving 17-year-old, spoke in court on Friday, accompanied by several friends and family in the audience and a Labrador Retriever service dog at her side. Sitting next to Senior Assistant District Attorney Lindsey Richards, the young woman prefaced her statement by saying she is recovering from a serious traumatic brain injury resulting from a skiing accident last year. The victim said the injury has resulted in communication deficits.
The young woman was 14 years old when Kelly began manipulating her, which led to numerous rapes in a number of locations prior to her accident. She spent time in the hospital after the accident and eventually went home for further rehabilitation. She tearily recalled that, while recovering at home, Kelly continued the rapes. “It hurt so much – I thought I was going to pass out.” She admitted developing feelings for the much older man prior to the accident but soon realized that the feelings were the result of his manipulation.
Further describing the sexual abuse, she said he had choked her several times while raping her and he cut her with a knife on a few occasions. In a respectable display of courage, which a victim advocate said she had not seen in her 30 years on the job, the young woman said, “I am not a victim – I hate that term….I am a survivor.”
The defendant has been in the Dutchess County Jail since being arrested. His attorney. Jeffrey Chartier told Judge McLoughlin that his client chose the plea deal because he did not want to further traumatize his victim or her family. Kelly, who never looked up while the teen was speaking, mumbled just a few words when given the chance. “I’m sorry for everything,” which caused McLoughlin to question if he was sorry for the criminal acts or just sorry that he had been caught.
McLoughlin speaking to the victim, told her the TBI was not noticeable and complimented her on the delivery of the statement. “I see a brilliant, strong, organized writer and speaker.”
In turning his attention to the rapist, McLoughlin told him that he “stole the innocence of this child,” while languishing over the need to impose a longer sentence. Calling Kelly “selfish” he said “You gave this child a life sentence and I wish I could give you a life sentence.”
Through the plea agreement, Kelly was convicted on two charges of criminal sexual act and accepted consecutive terms of five years for each count. In addition to the 10 year prison sentence, Kelly will be a registered sex offender and serve 10 years of post-release supervision.
