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	Child Molester Receives 9 to 18 Years By Matt Dimler Wayne Independent August 14, 2008 HONESDALE - Steven Wolpert, 55, was sentenced Thursday for charges pertaining to the 2006 molestation of an 8 year-old boy. Wolpert, who was allegedly sexually abused as a child, received nine to 18 years in prison for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 13, a first degree felony. "I was outraged to read that you want people to think this happened just one time with just one child," assistant district attorney Patrick Robinson told the court, "and that you say that the child violated boundaries and you were unable to stop him, a 400 lb. man unable to stop an eight year-old child." Wolpert's attorney, Robert Munley, Esq. requested that the court administer the minimum sentence, referring to Wolpert as "a man of good character, who has never been in trouble before." Wolpert, a retired New York Catholic priest with a Master of Divinity degree, addressed the court, asking for "God's forgiveness for this...crime." To that, Judge Hamill said, "I do not believe that you are a man of good character, and that there is a streak of evil in you....That an educated man such as yourself can set up these children, and make a playfulness out of it, is staggering." Judge Hamill stated Wolpert testified that "[Wolpert] allowed the kids to sleep naked with [him], because they were 'curious' and [he] didn't want to stifle the child's sexuality." Despite Attorney Munley's appeal, as well as Wolpert's testimony, Judge Hamill said that Wolpert's actions were indeed "predatory" and he was "amazed how [he] could look at this...with such denial." On top of his prison sentence, Wolpert was ordered to pay $3000 in restitution and will be placed on the national sex offender registry for life. "He received the appropriate sentence," said Attorney Robinson, "and my hope is that, given the amount of jail time he received, he will never molest another child in his life."
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