Kids@Risk: A sexual offender speaks
Kids@Risk: A sexual offender speaks 03/31/2006 By ROSE QUINN rquinn@delcotimes.com Convicted child-sex offender Steve Sembrat had just been asked how young he was willing to go as he cruised the Internet for a girl to play out his bondage sex fantasy. Dead silence fell over the telephone. "I don’t believe I would have gone younger than 13," Sembrat, 48, finally replied. He couldn’t say how he knew that for certain. And his plan for the girl afterward, when his urges that required props like rope and duct tape had been satisfied? "I would have just left," he answered. Thirteen is the age of the girl the veteran sportswriter for the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre thought he was meeting at a CVS in Springfield last summer. Instead, he was greeted by the Delaware County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and arrested on charges of criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and related offenses. But according to the arrest affidavit, Sembrat wrote in one online exchange with Detective Lisa Carroll -- who poses as a teen in ongoing attempts to catch computer criminals -- about having tied up a 12-year-old girl at the shore and masturbating in her presence. Contrary to that exchange, Sembrat told the Daily Times in an interview that his desire to tie up young girls and have sex with them surfaced in his mind only about a year before his July 31, 2005, arrest. Even now, Sembrat admitted his "mind still wanders" on occasion, mostly when he has nothing to do. When it happens, he said, it’s a recurring scenario -- but never with anyone in particular. "There would be bondage," he said "and there would be young girls." And he said he had no real preference about the type of girl he’d like. "Just young," Sembrat said. Guilty plea On March 15, Delaware County Common Pleas Judge Frank Hazel accepted a negotiated plea from Sembrat, a bachelor who until this week lived at home with his 74-year-old mother. He pleaded guilty to criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony, and criminal use of a communication facility, namely a computer, which is a third-degree felony. Guidelines call for him to serve two to four years in a state facility, according to Assistant District Attorney Joseph Brielmann, the office spokesman. Though formal sentencing is not scheduled until June 5, Sembrat surrendered Monday to begin serving his sentence, according to Brielmann. In the meantime, he will be evaluated by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board to determine if he is a sexually violent predator. If so, he’ll have to register for life on the Megan’s Law list. Otherwise, he’ll register for 10 years as a sexual offender. Sembrat, contacted at home in Edwardsville, Pa., spoke candidly about what he described as "sick" impulses that led up to his arrest and the impact those impulses have had on his life. "I never denied I did this," Sembrat said of his planned attempt to molest a Delaware County teen. "Right from the beginning, I never denied I tried to do it. What bugs me is I could not understand why I did this." And he’s sorry for the pain he’s caused his family, and the few friends he has left. "I don’t blame them at all," he said of those who have cast him aside. "My mistake was that I didn’t seek professional help," Sembrat said. That night in Springfield, he said, was the first time he acted on his impulses. Until then, all through his 20s and 30s, he said he was attracted to women of appropriate ages and had satisfying sex with some of them. Sembrat isn’t looking for any pity, he said, only help. He said he never let his personal urges cross over into his professional life. In addition to covering high school sports for the newspaper, Sembrat coached girls’ field hockey and was president of the Pocono Field Hockey Club. The bust Sembrat said he decided in his 20s that he liked the single lifestyle. He worked mostly nights. He said his interest in young girls bothered him from the start. He tried to "will himself" to stop. Several times, he killed off his AOL screen name, only to restore it. The longest he went off-line was a few months. He had $20 in his pocket and no set plans other than the rendezvous spot when he drove off from his home in Luzerne County last July. There had been some advance discussion about getting a hotel room, which he planned to put on a credit card. Sembrat’s exchanges with Carroll began in March 2005 and continued to the day of his arrest. In his car at the time of the bust, authorities found rope, duct tape, bondage photos, condoms and a digital camera. Sembrat makes no excuses. He said he bought the rope and duct tape just for the occasion. When he first got to the rendezvous spot, Sembrat said he got to thinking about what he was doing and just continued to drive by, intentionally. "I remember thinking, I can’t do this. This is crazy. I am risking everything I worked so hard for," Sembrat said. He doesn’t know how long he kept driving, or where he was when he decided to turn around. "I really didn’t remember turning around until Lt. Peifer was asking me why I rode past," Sembrat said. Lt. David C. Peifer leads the county’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Sembrat called his mother and told her what happened. Of course, "she was upset," he said. She’s the one who found his attorney. And posted his bail. Sembrat said he spent nine days in the county prison before being released. No undoing the past When he got out on bail, Sembrat said he began counseling to examine his behavior. He’s also had some medical testing, which revealed a brain tumor he believes might have contributed to his judgment and reasoning. In addition, he said he suffered a stroke, but never experienced any physical symptoms. His medical condition was not mentioned at the guilty plea proceeding and Brielmann had no comment on the matter. In a letter Sembrat wrote, he said he opted against a medical defense because he did not "wish to relive what has happened and re-open wounds that I hope in time will heal. "I also realize that I cannot undo what has happened. Most importantly, in pleading guilty, I seek to take responsibility for the situation and my actions. By doing this, I hope to give assurance to all that I am fully committed to finding solutions to the problems that face me," he wrote. As part of the plea, several initial charges were dropped. Sembrat said there were times when he was communicating with Carroll that he wondered about her, and if she was who she said she was. Sembrat said he always played it straight. Though the computer offered anonymity, he said he never tried to be something he wasn’t. His interest was bondage, and he made it known. Sembrat said he would only go online when he had time, maybe two hours a day at most. Some days would pass and he wouldn’t sign on at all. The conflict in his head, he said, was ongoing, but not all-consuming. It was during his moments of clarity that he would swear off the computer. "I would say, hey, this is nuts, kind of like the moment I had outside CVS," he said. Sembrat has a niece who is just about 13. To her and all his family, he said he is profoundly sorry. When asked what would he tell anyone who would consider doing to his niece what he wanted to do to a Delaware County teen, he said: "Get help. "It’s wrong," he said. Sembrat, who admitted he was nervous about jail, said he is looking forward to getting the help he needs. He said people like him who don’t get help, who think they can fight the urges on their own, are setting themselves up for a fall. "If you have these thoughts, you need to open up and let someone help you," Sembrat said. Sembrat won’t say he’s a pedophile. "I’ve shown tendencies I would like to get out of my life," he said. In no way does he think he is a sexually violent predator. As he begins what he said is a new chapter in his life, Sembrat said he is looking to God for guidance. Unlike some who believe investigations by the task force are entrapment, Sembrat said the arrest forced him to face himself. "I think they saved me," he said. Sembrat does have a problem with sting operations handled by some television news shows. He feels it violates the code of journalistic ethics and that the shows become a willing partner with law enforcement officials. "First of all, having a major television network conduct surveillance of citizens is reminiscent of an Orwellian society and it violates their civil rights," he wrote in a letter to the Daily Times. "If a police investigation were to include secret videotaping of individuals, it is reasonable to assume that the secret videotaping of individuals would require a court order. In having (the show) do this, police are able to circumvent Fourth Amendment restrictions on this type of surveillance. It is spying on American citizens, the same thing for which President Bush is being criticized by many." http://www.delcotimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16408734&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18171&rfi=6