Jury gets case of girl sold for sex to pay owed rent
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) — A federal court jury began deliberations Wednesday in the case against a woman accused of selling a 12-year-old-girl, and the landlord who accepted her as back rent.
Linda O’Connor, 46, of Norwich, and Dean Sacco, 49, of Jersey City, N.J., are charged with buying a child for sex, sex trafficking of a child, and possessing and producing child pornography for filming encounters with the girl. Sacco also is accused of driving over state lines to have sex with a minor.
If convicted, the pair could be sent to prison for the rest of their lives.
The U.S. District Court jury heard nearly four weeks of testimony.
For both prosecution and defense, the key issue is the credibility of the young girl, now 14 and living in a residential treatment center.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric admitted the girl, who testified for two days, was not a model child. Witnesses testified to several occasions when the girl lied and manipulated others.
But he suggested she had been turned from an innocent little girl into the person the jury saw because of sexual abuse by O’Connor and from being raped by Sacco.
“They broke her, smashed her and re-glued her.” Lovric said. “How can you be subjected to that and not have fallout? It’s a miracle she’s still alive.”
Lovric called O’Connor a “societal parasite, a moocher. Somebody who freeloads.”
He called Sacco a predator and a “sexual psychopath.”
Kelly Fischer, Sacco’s attorney, said Lovric’s case rested mainly on the girl’s testimony.
“The evidence comes from one source,” Fischer said. “To put it kindly, the source is unreliable.”
Fischer and O’Connor’s attorney, Lisa Peebles, said the girl’s allegations were filled with inconsistencies and lies.
The girl testified that she had sexual intercourse with Sacco on seven occasions between August 2006 and February 2007. She was 12 and 13 at the time. The girl also said that Sacco taped himself having sex with her in 2006 in a Norwich apartment.
The girl also claimed O’Connor sold her for sex with two different strangers at a Johnson City hotel in late 2006.
Police did not find any pornographic images of the girl on the computers or cameras they recovered in the case, nor did they ever locate the two strangers.
The girl told police she faced homelessness and that Sacco threatened to kill her if she didn’t comply.
Sacco also faces state trial in Chenango County on rape charges related to the case. Sacco served time in prison for hijacking a bus in 1991.
Linda O’Connor, 46, of Norwich, and Dean Sacco, 49, of Jersey City, N.J., are charged with buying a child for sex, sex trafficking of a child, and possessing and producing child pornography for filming encounters with the girl. Sacco also is accused of driving over state lines to have sex with a minor.
If convicted, the pair could be sent to prison for the rest of their lives.
The U.S. District Court jury heard nearly four weeks of testimony.
For both prosecution and defense, the key issue is the credibility of the young girl, now 14 and living in a residential treatment center.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric admitted the girl, who testified for two days, was not a model child. Witnesses testified to several occasions when the girl lied and manipulated others.
But he suggested she had been turned from an innocent little girl into the person the jury saw because of sexual abuse by O’Connor and from being raped by Sacco.
“They broke her, smashed her and re-glued her.” Lovric said. “How can you be subjected to that and not have fallout? It’s a miracle she’s still alive.”
Lovric called O’Connor a “societal parasite, a moocher. Somebody who freeloads.”
He called Sacco a predator and a “sexual psychopath.”
Kelly Fischer, Sacco’s attorney, said Lovric’s case rested mainly on the girl’s testimony.
“The evidence comes from one source,” Fischer said. “To put it kindly, the source is unreliable.”
Fischer and O’Connor’s attorney, Lisa Peebles, said the girl’s allegations were filled with inconsistencies and lies.
The girl testified that she had sexual intercourse with Sacco on seven occasions between August 2006 and February 2007. She was 12 and 13 at the time. The girl also said that Sacco taped himself having sex with her in 2006 in a Norwich apartment.
The girl also claimed O’Connor sold her for sex with two different strangers at a Johnson City hotel in late 2006.
Police did not find any pornographic images of the girl on the computers or cameras they recovered in the case, nor did they ever locate the two strangers.
The girl told police she faced homelessness and that Sacco threatened to kill her if she didn’t comply.
Sacco also faces state trial in Chenango County on rape charges related to the case. Sacco served time in prison for hijacking a bus in 1991.
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