Court Reverses Riback Sex Abuse Convictions
Posted on Tuesday, 1 of December , 2009 at 11:45 am
ALBANY—In an unanimous decision, the state’s highest court has thrown out the conviction of former pediatric neurogloist Phillip Riback of Slingerlands and ordered a new trial due to prosecutorial misconduct.
Riback is serving a 20-year prison term for sexually abusing 12 young male patients aged 7 to 13 between 1997 and 2002. He was convicted in 2004 of 28 counts of sodomy and sexual following a jury trial in Albany County Court, 12 felonies and 16 misdemeanors.
The Court of Appeals found that assistant Albany County district Peter Torncello overstepped the bounds in his summation and improperly used the testimony of an expert witness about the definition of pedophilia.
Riback’s appellate attorney Paul Shechtman had argued that Albany County Judge Stephen W. Herrick had improperly allowed the expert to talk about sexual fetishes and pedophilia in an attempt to describe Riback tickling and wrestling with his young male patients.
A decision last December by a mid-level appeals court had upheld Riback’s conviction but reduced his sentence from 48 years to 20 years. http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/ad3/Decisions/2008/100959.pdf
Prosecutors had alleged that the abuse took place in Riback’s examining rooms at Upstate Neurology Associates in Colonie after the parents had been asked to leave the room. Boys testified that Riback had touched them inappropriately and had engaged in such acts as spitting on his face or in his mouth.
Riback didn’t testify. Through cross examination of the prosecution witnesses and the Riback’s direct case, the defense argued that any unusual behavior that Riback displayed towards his patients was designed to create rapport and put them at ease and that the most damning accusations made against him were the distorted or mistaken product of suggestive and coercive questioning by parents and police.
Following conviction, Riback’s attorneys moved to vacate the conviction and sentenced based on evidence discovered during civil litigation and his posttrial diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome.
“Numerous summation misstatements of fact and law….when combined with the opinion by the prosecutor that defendant’s acts were those of a pedophile…..rose to such a level that the defendant was deprived of the fair trial to which he was entitled”, Justice Susan P. Read wrote for the majority. http://www.courts.state.ny.us/CTAPPS/decisions/2009/dec09/170opn09.pdf
“We conclude…..that the trial judge should not have allowed (the expert) to define “pedophilia” and the “central characteristics” of a pedophile”. Unfortunately, it is difficult to imagine that this information was unknown to the jurors. Whether this error alone would cause us to reverse the judgment in this case is beside the point, though, because this testimony became a springboard for the prosecutor to venture well beyond the evidence and the bounds of fair comment during his summation”, the court ruled. 12-1-09
Subscription Needed For Future Visits, No Exceptions. First time visitors to The North Country Gazette are welcome at no charge. Thereafter, readers who wish to read additional articles or plan on returning at a later time will need to be an advertiser or have a paid subscription to the NCG Daily Digest in order to gain access. This policy will be strictly enforced and access will be denied to those who abuse it. To sign up, see the subscription ad and PayPal button to the right of this page or at www.northcountrygazette.org If you have questions, contact us at news@northcountrygazette.org
Category: Children, Constitution, Courts, Crime, New York State
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Meneame -
- Digg
COPYRIGHT 2009 - NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of the publisher.
