COURTS Sexual offender sentence: probation

The victims' family is outraged over the sentence.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A 66-year-old North Side man was placed on probation Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for molesting two young girls.
A relative of the victims said the sentence was too lenient.
Robert Babcock of Brookline Avenue was sentenced to five years' probation for two counts of gross sexual imposition, to which he pleaded guilty in April.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Krueger said Babcock molested the girls, whom he knew, several times in 1998, 1999 and 2000. The girls were as young as 4 and 6 at the time. Krueger said Babcock fondled the girls while they were visiting at his house.
A county grand jury indicted Babcock in January 2000 on three counts each of rape and gross sexual imposition. As part of a plea agreement, all three rape counts and one gross sexual imposition count were dismissed.
Krueger said she asked that a three-year prison sentence be imposed for each of the remaining counts, but Visiting Judge Charles J. Bannon instead placed Babcock on probation.
Reaction
"I'm disappointed, to say the least," Krueger said.
Kelly Burns of Youngstown, who said she is related to the victims, said the sentence is too light.
"I'm very, very angry right now," Burns said after the sentencing. "It is just unbelievable that this court system could give a man probation for raping two little girls."
Babcock's lawyer, Louis DeFabio, said the sentence was fair because Babcock already had spent nine months in the county jail and nearly 2 1/2 years on house arrest awaiting trial. He said Babcock would have gotten credit for all that time toward any prison sentence the judge might have imposed.
DeFabio also said that the victims' version of events contained inconsistencies that would have given him a chance of winning had the case gone to trial.
"This plea and sentencing spared those little girls having to go through that," DeFabio said.
Among the terms of Babcock's probation are that he have no contact with the victims or their family and that he complete a sex offenders' treatment program at the Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio.
He was also labeled a sexually oriented offender, which means he must register his address with the sheriff in his county of residence once a year for 10 years.
bjackson@vindy.com