BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A former Brevard County sheriff’s deputy was locked up Monday.
Joseph Pallante was sentenced to two life prison terms, and decades more, for sex crimes against a young girl.
The girl asked the judge Monday to let him rot in prison.
When Pallante walked into the Brevard County courtroom, he faced a room filled with supporters of the now-teenaged victim. She sat with her father’s arm constantly around her shoulders, and then spoke against the man already convicted of forcing her into sex acts.
“The only person that should take the blame is him, and he can’t even have the decency to own up to his own actions. He’s a disgusting and deceitful monster that should spend the rest of his life rotting in a prison cell,” the victim said.
A jury found that Pallante had forced the girl into sex acts beginning when she was 9 years old, and showed her pornographic videos to teach her what to do. The jury found that she was made to walk around nude in Pallante’s home, and that he invited a friend over while the girl was undressed and given vodka. That friend was Brevard County school teacher Jason Burchfield, who was himself convicted of failure to report child abuse and stripped of his teaching credential. At trial last month, Pallante denied everything.
“That absolutely never happened. She actually looked up the pornography, and I caught her looking it up,” Pallante said.
At Pallante’s sentencing, his only defender was his mother.
“Since my son was a little boy, he was always respectful of others, and he is just truly a good human being,” Sharon Pallante said.
Unmoved, Judge David Dugan sentenced Pallante to two consecutive life terms, plus 30 years.
The victim’s father said he had promised her she would never have to see or hear Pallante again. He can now keep that promise.
Source: http://www.wesh.com/article/former-brevard-county-deputy-sentenced-to-2-life-prison-terms/13533602