Prison ‘inappropriate’ for man who pleaded guilty to raping four teens, NY judge says
Prison time would be “inappropriate” for a 20-year-old man who pleaded guilty to raping and sexually abusing four teenage girls at his parent’s home, a judge in New York has decided.
Instead, Niagara County Court Judge Matthew J. Murphy III sentenced Christopher Belter to eight years probation on Nov. 16 after his 2019 guilty plea, saying he “agonized” over the sentencing but determined incarceration “isn’t appropriate,” WKBW reported.
“I’m not ashamed to say that I actually prayed over what is the appropriate sentence in this case. because there was great pain. There was great harm — There were multiple crimes committed in the case,” Murphy said in the upstate courthouse near Niagara Falls, according to the outlet.
Murphy did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
Shock went through the courtroom when Murphy made his decision based on crimes committed by Belter when he was 16 and 17, The Buffalo News reported. The attorney for one of the victims, Steven M. Cohen, said “justice was not done here today.”
Belter’s victims during 2017 were a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old girl and two 16-year-old girls during 2018, according to the judge’s decision, the outlet reported.
Upon reaction to Belter’s probation sentencing, Cohen, who has practiced law for over 30 years, told McClatchy News in an emailed statement his client was “deeply disappointed” and went to the courthouse bathroom to throw up.
”The sentencing in this matter would seem to perpetuate the insane belief that rape is not a serious crime and that its occurrence results in little consequence to the perpetrator,” said Cohen, the litigation chair at HoganWillig, PLLC. “Our society needs to do much better.”
Belter’s attorney, Barry N. Covert, said his client is “tremendously remorseful for what he has done,” WKBW reported.
Covert declined a request for comment from McClatchy News.
Belter’s parents’ home in Lewiston, where the attacks occurred roughly 7 miles outside of Niagara Falls, were referred to as a “party house,” which the prosecutor denounced, according to WKBW.
“It was not a party house case judge; it was a house of sexual assault — that is what happened there — that is not something we should look past,” prosecutor Peter Wydysh said in court, according to the outlet.
Underage teens would hang out and party at Belter’s house to drink and use drugs such as Adderall and marijuana, according to court documents, The New York Times reported. He attended Canisius High School in Buffalo where he played rugby.
The reported crimes against the four teenage girls began in February 2017 and would occur over the course of the following 18 months, the newspaper reported.
One 16-year-old victim in 2018, referred to as M.M. in court documents, was having a sleepover with Belter’s sister the night when he invited her into his room, proceeding to force her onto his bed and telling her to stop behaving like a baby during a sexual attack, according to the court documents obtained by The New York Times.
State police have said Belter’s mom, Tricia Vacanti; stepfather, Gary Sullo; and family friend, Jessica Long, groomed the teenage girls for Belter’s attacks and would allegedly provide them with alcohol and drugs, The Washington Post reported.
Vacanti was arrested by the state police’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation on Nov. 6, 2018, on eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child and five counts of unlawfully dealing with a child, according to an archived news release provided by police to McClatchy News.
Authorities “investigated a complaint of multiple occasions from June 2017 to August 2018 when Vacanti supplied alcohol for youths under 17 years old,” police said.
Weeks later, Belter’s stepfather Sullo was arrested on seven counts of endangering the welfare of a child and four counts of unlawfully dealing with a child on Nov. 28, according to another news release.
The same day, family friend of the Belter’s, Long, was arrested on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and unlawfully dealing with a child.
Law enforcement said they investigated similar complaints made against Sullo and Long that they supplied alcohol for youths.
All three adults pleaded not guilty to child endangerment and unlawfully dealing with a child charges, according to The Post.
In 2019, Belter pleaded guilty to felony third-degree rape and attempted first-degree sexual abuse, along with two misdemeanor second-degree sexual abuse charges, the outlet reported.
“If Chris Belter was not a White defendant from a rich and influential family, in my experience … he would surely have been sentenced to prison,” Cohen told The Post.
“The truth of what went on and what he did to his victims is far more egregious than the charges he plead guilty to,” he told McClatchy News.
Alongside probation, Belter has to register as a sex offender and will be back in court on Dec. 2 for a Sex Offender Registration Act hearing, according to The Buffalo News.
This hearing will be presided over by Murphy and will determine what level sex offender he will be classified under, Cohen said.
State police declined to comment on Belter’s sentencing.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 10:08 AM with the headline "Prison ‘inappropriate’ for man who pleaded guilty to raping four teens, NY judge says."
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