Child Molester Gets 40 to 50 Years (The Associated Press)
By Robert O'Neill
Originally published by The Associated Press, August 17, 2001
SALEM, Mass. (AP) — A former youth ministry and YMCA worker was sentenced to at least 40 years in prison Friday for raping and assaulting boys he had befriended.
Christopher Reardon, 29, had faced up to life in prison in the largest abuse case in state history. He had pleaded guilty last month to 75 of 130 counts against him, including child rape, indecent assault and battery on a child and disseminating pornography. The charges involved 24 boys ages 7 to 14.
Salem Superior Court Judge Isaac Borenstein sentenced Reardon to at least 40 to no more than 50 years in prison. Had the judge sentenced Reardon to life in prison, he could have been eligible for parole in just 15 years, but also could have spent his entire life behind bars.
"It is clear to me that unless you are in jail for most of your life, there is a serious risk to other people," Borenstein said.
The judge said Reardon caused more harm "than a sadistic stranger on the street."
Prosecutors had recommended 50 to 75 years in prison. Reardon's defense claimed he could be rehabilitated and asked the judge for a 10- to 15-year sentence, with treatment.
About three dozen family members of victims attended the sentence. Some cried as the sentence was read.
"Christopher Reardon should never be left in a position that would ever allow him to manipulate or abuse another child," the victims' families said in a statement read by Prosecutor Robert Brennan.
"I'm glad it's just all over," said one of the boys, who had testified earlier this week that Reardon ruined his life. "I'm glad he was sentenced to a long time. … He deserved it."
Reardon's parents, John and Catherine Reardon, sat impassively in the courtroom. His sister, Kelly Kasprzak, cried.
"On behalf of Christopher Reardon and his family, we're all disappointed in the sentence," defense lawyer John Andrews said afterward.
Reardon admitted molesting boys he befriended through his job as the youth ministry coordinator at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Middleton, about 20 miles north of Boston. He met other victims while working as a Boy Scout leader and a swim instructor at a YMCA.
According to court records, police confiscated at least two dozen pornographic videos, photographs of nude children, inflatable dolls and sex toys from Reardon's home and office.
Evidence included a videotape police found of Reardon masturbating with a boy in the church rectory and dozens of pages of charts and computerized spreadsheets filled with meticulous notes and descriptions of boys and how Reardon allegedly assaulted them.
"All of the evidence shows you to be a person obsessed with having and obtaining sexual gratification from young boys, and I'm persuaded you present a very serious risk to other young boys in the future," Borenstein said.
During the two-day sentencing hearing earlier this week, some victims and their family members asked for the maximum sentence.
But psychologist Carol Ball said Reardon "is not a totally evil man." She and Dr. Murray Cohen testified they believed Reardon could eventually be rehabilitated if given a sentence that would allow him to seek treatment.
The judge rejected Reardon's claims, made in a presentencing report, that the boys initiated the conduct, that he was trying to educate them about sex, and that it was his former wife's fault for refusing to consummate their marriage.
"The crimes you have committed are a serious violations of the bodies, the minds and of the spirits of these people, the most vulnerable members of our society," Borenstein told Reardon. "A truthful individual, as some have called you, does not use his jobs to create a secret world of sexual abuse."
