Ex-pastor Gets 15 Years in Prison for Sexually Abusing Grandchildren
Daily News
Calling him a “disturbed and depraved” man and a “wolf in shepherd’s clothing,” a judge Monday sentenced a former pastor to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting two of his grandchildren. Roy Harriger, 71, also will be on 10 years of supervision once he is released from prison, Judge James Punch ordered. Harriger was found guilty Jan. 26 after a week-long jury trial in Orleans County Court. Jurors convicted him of two counts of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and acquitted him of a third count for alleged abuse against another grandchild. Jurors sat through days of intense testimony, including harrowing accounts by the victims of the abuse suffered at the hands of their grandfather, who at the time of the abuse was pastor of Ashwood Wesleyan Church in Yates. Harriger could have received a maximum 50 years in prison, 25 for each conviction. Instead, Punch sentenced Harriger to consecutive 7 1/2-year terms. District Attorney Joseph Cardone was brief in speaking before sentencing, telling Punch that Harriger’s abuse further deepened the crack in an already dysfunctional family. Harriger’s attorney, Larry Koss, asked Punch to consider the minimum sentence available, citing Harriger’s age, his past work as a pastor and the family dysfunction. “It’s an almost incomprehensible family relationship,” Koss said. “Two or three generations. It’s difficult to understand. What isn’t difficult to understand is the work he has done for people over the years.” Koss cited numerous letters of support from family, friends and parishioners. “At one time he worked as a park police officer and then he was called to the ministry and years of various congregations throughout the country, in Michigan and in New York,” Koss said. “He’s 71 years old. Given all the good that happened as a result of his work as a minister, I’d ask for the minimum possible sentence allowed by law.” Harriger, he said, has continually denied molesting his grandchildren and is “tremendously troubled” by the destruction of his family. Harriger, in a low, garbled tone, told Punch that he was innocent. “I have never harmed a child,” he said. “I did not do this.” Punch told Harriger that he “had no quarrel with the verdict of the jury.” “Sexual abuse doesn’t get much worse than that,” Punch said. “There are so many victims. The ripples of misery that came out of these acts touched so many lives. “The use of your charisma and power of persuasion to victimize these children and keep them quiet is a most disturbing set of circumstances.” The abuse happened in 2001 and 2002. “So many people put their trust in you. The church. Members of your family and friends and most of all your grandchildren and children and you violated that trust in a most disturbing and depraved way. You could say you are a wolf in sheep’s clothing but you are a wolf in shepherd’s clothing and that is much worse.” Previous story: ALBION — Former pastor Roy Harriger was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting two of his grandchildren in 2001 and 2002. A jury found Harriger guilty Jan. 26 of two counts of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child. The jury found him not guilty of a third count against another grandchild. Orleans County Judge James Punch imposed Monday’s sentence. Harriger, 71, had faced up to 25 years in prison. All three victims testified that Harriger sexually assaulted them. Two of the victims, a brother and a sister, are now adults and testified that Harriger abused them in 2001 and 2002. Harriger was pastor of Ashwood Wesleyan Church in Yates. He was arrested at his home in Middleport in November 2013 after a state police investigation. More to come.
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