Judge declines to assign most severe S.O. status to babysitt **Yet ANOTHER candidate for our IDIOT FILES!!!!!! :x
December 15, 2005, 7:55 PM EST
Parents who want to protect their children from a "monster" who will probably abuse again should be able to know the exact whereabouts of Wendy Hatras, the mother of her 2-year-old victim said Thursday after a judge declined to assign the convicted child molester the most severe sex offender status.
"She's never, as far as I'm concerned, paid her debt to society," the disappointed mother of the Holtsville boy, now 6, said outside Suffolk County Court in Riverhead. "There is no debt that she could ever pay that is good enough for me."
Newsday is not identifying the victim or his family because of the nature of the crime.
In 2002, Hatras, 34, of Holtsville, pleaded guilty to molesting the boy while baby-sitting him and served 4 years in prison, including time served before she was sentenced. The boy's grandmother secretly videotaped Hatras and caught her fondling, slapping, attempting to breast-feed and smothering the boy.
Hatras was released in June, but under Megan's Law has to register with the state as a sex offender.
Although under a point system applied by the state, Hatras would normally classify as a low-risk re-offender, prosecutors and state officials urged Judge Ralph Gazzillo to depart from the system and assign her a high-risk rating because of the nature of her crime.
That would mean Hatras' home and work addresses would permanently be published on a state Web site.
Gazzillo assigned her moderate-risk status, which requires her to publish only her home ZIP code.
Hatras' attorney, Daniel McCormick of Holtsville, argued in court papers that his client had been diagnosed with mental illness, had stopped taking her medication just before the abuse, and was herself the victim of child sexual abuse.
In his decision, Gazzillo noted that Hatras' crimes were "uncommonly grotesque," but also took into account Hatras' mental problems. Gazzillo wrote that the "moderate risk" classification "strikes an appropriate balance" and "offers a suitable level of protection to society."
Assistant District Attorney Donald Mates said he was "disappointed and a little bit surprised" by the decision, but emphasized that the classification was still tougher than what Hatras could have gotten.
"It wasn't a compete failure," he said.
News Day
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