The mother of a sexually abused 12-year-old girl in Florida s outraged that a judge sentenced the defendant to just 10 days on sex-offender probation, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Circuit Judge O. H. Eaton Jr. also sentenced Mark Vansandt, 22, of Longwood, Fla., to four years of conventional probation on an unrelated cocaine charge.
Vansandt pleaded guilty to having sex with the girl at his home in 2002. Under state sentencing guidelines, he faced a combined prison sentence of eight to 20 years in the sex and cocaine cases. The law allows judges to sharply reduce the penalty they give young offenders.
Sterling Ivey of the Florida Department of Corrections said he’d never heard of a defendant being placed on sex-offender probation for just 10 days. That status means more visits from a probation officer and that he must get counseling, keep a log of wherever he drives, and he cannot leave home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Vansandt “is not a pedophile. He’s not a rapist. He’s not a violent sex offender,” Eaton said, rather an extremely immature man who had sex with a 12-year-old.
Link: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-locsrapist14051404may14,0,5738597.stor