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	Unjust Sentence The Intelligencer March 13, 2009 http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/28/2009/march/12/unjust-sentence-1.html Former prosecutor, guilty of corrupting minors, deserved jail. AT LEAST BANK ROBBERS are honest about their intentions. They clearly state what they want and often show a weapon for emphasis. Anthony Cappuccio isn't fit to share a cell with a bank robber. The former Bucks County prosecutor was sly and sneaky in committing his crimes. The weapons Cappuccio used - authority, power and trust - likewise concealed his intentions. He used them to gain the confidence of teenage boys - and then he victimized them. Cappuccio should be in jail. Instead, the married father of two has been grounded, placed under house arrest for his admitted crimes: child endangerment and corruption of minors, among others. A church youth group leader, Cappuccio, 32, admitted supplying three underage members of the church with alcohol and drugs, and to having a sexual relationship with one of the boys. Cappuccio's crimes were serious enough to warrant a prison sentence, perhaps even the maximum of 18 months. But county Judge C. Theodore Fritsch Jr. instead sentenced Cappuccio to three to 23 months house arrest, meaning he can leave his home only to go to work or see a doctor. What a great deal for Cappuccio. What an obvious injustice for his victims and their stunned families. While house arrest is within state sentencing guidelines, Cappuccio should have gotten a tougher sentence, in our view, because of the extent of the deceit: using the power and authority of his office, his stature in the community and his trusted position with a church to pry his victims from their families' protective reach. As one church member told Fritsch: "If you can't trust + a churchgoing DA, who can you trust?" Certainly not the court. Although neither lawyer challenged Fritsch's involvement in the case, the judge is a former high-ranking county prosecutor who oversaw at least one of Cappuccio's cases while he interned for the DA's office several years ago. For this reason, Fritsch should have recused himself, which is what the DA's office did. Appropriately, the prosecution was handled by the state Attorney General's Office. We're not saying the judge broke any rules. Apparently, he believed he could render fair and impartial judgment. The problem is, his earlier relationship with Cappuccio creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, if not an actual conflict. Certainly, family members don't believe the sentence was fair. We suspect most people don't. And the defense lawyer's plea for leniency, based on the argument that his client is a homosexual living a torturous, closeted life, omits that Cappuccio could have sought a relationship with an adult. Instead, he used his position to take advantage of impressionable and easily manipulated minors. He stole their innocence. Stealing from a bank would be more forgivable.
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