150-Year Sentence in Sex Abuse of Teenager After Internet Meeting

by Bruce Lambert, Originally published by The New York Times, February 12, 2003

A man convicted of luring a 15–year–old girl from an Internet chat room into a week of torture and rape was sentenced today to a prison term of 150 years to life.

The man, James Warren, 42, of Hampton Bays, insisted that he was innocent and said he would appeal. Although he did not testify at his trial, he said today in Nassau County Court that the girl had willingly participated and that she had told him she was 18, the age of legal consent.

"I'm not going to plead for leniency," Mr. Warren said. "I'm going to plead for honesty."

Mr. Warren said the girl had lied when she testified that she was forced into sadomasochistic acts and sex with him and another man and a woman. "I don't force anyone to engage in anything," he said.

But Judge Alan L. Honorof meted out the sentence requested by the prosecution. The assistant district attorney, Gregg Turkin, said he had never heard of such a long sentence, except in homicide cases, but he added that it was fully justified.

A jury convicted Mr. Warren on 63 counts of kidnapping, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

The victim testified that she was subjected to various sex acts with all three adults. She said she was hit, whipped, tied up, hanged, choked with belts and rope until she passed out, smothered with a plastic bag over her head, stuck with needles and burned on the breasts.

Mr. Turkin said today that the girl was back in school.

The other two defendants, Beth Loschin and Michael Montez, both pleaded guilty and are in prison.