By Tim Mcglone
The Virginian-Pilot
February 26, 2009
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/02/former-beach-teacher-gets-10-12-years-child-porn-case
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| Despite a tearful plea for leniency, Michael J. Jablonski was sentenced on Wednesday to 10-1/2 years. |
Former Green Run High School teacher and coach Michael J. Jablonski became one of 1,600 people caught looking at child pornography last year.
That's more than double the number caught by federal authorities just four years earlier.
Despite a tearful plea for leniency, Jablonski was sentenced on Wednesday to 10-1/2 years in federal prison for having thousands of photographs and hundreds of videos of child pornography on his computer at home.
He had faced a 14-count indictment charging him with receiving and possessing child pornography, but in an agreement with federal prosecutors he pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography.
U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Friedman more than doubled the minimum prison term, citing the "extremely serious" nature of the pictures, some of which included bondage of very young children.
Jablonski taught social studies and coached girls volleyball at Green Run High School in Virginia Beach until his arrest last April. His girlfriend turned him in to police after finding the pornography on the computer.
There was never an indication that he abused any children, either at the school or in his care at any time.
"There's not one shred of evidence, suspicion or even a hunch that he acted outside this obscene world," Jablonski's attorney, Andrew Sacks, told Friedman.
Sacks had argued unsuccessfully for a sentence at the mandatory minimum level of five years, citing his client's lack of a criminal record, his 14 years of teaching and coaching and, as a mitigating factor, years of sexual abuse as a child and teenager.
Jablonski explained the abuse to the judge, but he began crying and had to pause.
First it was a neighborhood boy when he was 7. Then a year or two later he was attacked and sodomized with a stick. Then a Catholic priest fondled him when he was 14. And at 18, another priest touched him inappropriately.
He could barely finish.
"For 30 years I never told anyone about it," he said.
He added that he was not telling his story to make excuses, but simply to offer a better understanding of his actions.
"I know I let down my loving family and the people in the community," he said. "For that, I'm sorry."
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
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