The mother of two girls who were sexually abused told Judge Robert C. Noonan today how the man who victimized them had potentially ruined their lives.
"His abuse has cast a shadow that is the length of a lifetime," the woman said.
Both the woman and her two daughters asked Noonan to give the abuser the maximum 14-year sentence available under the law, and that's just what Noonan did.
Anthony P. Dioguardi, 28, a resident of Wyoming Correctional Facility, will serve two consecutive seven-year terms in prison after completing his current term on a prior sexual abuse conviction.
On Jan. 26, Dioguardi was convicted by a jury of using force to have sex with a child age under age 11.
Dioguardi tried to convince Noonan that he wasn't a monster and that a minimum sentence would give him a chance to get out into society and prove he could live a normal life.
Sexual abusers and rapists, Noonan explained, aren't the people who look homeless and creep out of bushes. They are often people the victims know.
"The fact is, you are intelligent, you are well-spoken, you are charismatic, you are loved by your people, but the fact that you are that kind of person and would commit the kind of crime that brought you here today does make you the kind of monster they (the prosecution and the victims) say you are."
One of the sisters who was victimized by Dioguardi said she is slowly learning to put her life back together, but the crime hasn't been easy on her sister.
"He's put her in a very dark place and I can't get her back," the girl said. "It makes me very, very mad."
The girl explained how even on tests when she comes across the name Tony or Anthony, she scribbles it out. She can't even stand to see the name, no matter what it might cost her in test scores or anything else.
"I call him a scumbag now because that's how I view him," she said. "He ruined my sister's life. He deserves to hear what he's done. I hope everything I say is getting into his brain because he deserves to hear it."
The girl said she hopes someday to have a job that will help victims of sexual abuse. Her mother later said the girl has said she hopes to go into law enforcement some day.
Dioguardi, shackled and in state prison garb, sat stone-faced and didn't move as his victims spoke.
"There is no amount of remorse I can express to tell you how sorry I am," Dioguardi said when it was his turn to speak. "I know it's my fault. I want them to know it's not their fault. It's mine."
Noonan said Dioguardi sounded only sorry to the point that he wanted to get a shorter prison term.
The mother of the victims said she wanted a sentence suitable to the crime.
"If I could have it my way, this useless pathetic excuse for a man would be put away forever and in darkness like my daughters have been in," she said.
It is unfortunate 7 years for
It is unfortunate 7 years for each count was the maximum. Preditors should have 25-life miimums.
There is a ton of research out there that pretty much all says the same thing, sexual preditors rarely rehabilitate.
ANY ADULT THAT HAS SEX WITH A PERSON 11 Years or Younger is a PREDITOR. there are no mitigating circumstances for that in my book, they define the term MONSTER.
Most preditors are articulate, personable and clean cut, which sometimes skews opinions to grant second chances.
I praise Judge Noonan for seeing through it, and pray for those poor sisters that they may overcome what has been done to them
Thank you Judge Noonan,
Thank you Judge Noonan, although 14 years is not as long as he deserves, it is probably the max you could give!
I hope this (scumbag) never sees the light of day.