County sentence in child porn case

Randi Darwin Vassar sentenced to 11 to 23 months in county prison

WEST CHESTER >> A man who served in the Navy and hid a secret life of dressing in women’s clothing from his family, and who was ultimately caught downloading child pornography onto his home computer, was sentenced Friday to a stint in Chester County Prison.

Randi Darwin Vassar, who a psychologist told Common Pleas Judge Phyllis Streitel, displayed gender dysphoria — a conflict between a person’s biological sex and the gender with which the person identifies — and worked hard to keep his condition from his family.

When his mother moved into his home in Oxford, he continued to dress as a woman behind closed doors, which put him under such stress that he reached out to viewing child pornography, Thomas Haworth, the New Jersey psychologist who interviewed Vassar, testified. Agents from the state Attorney General’s Office eventually tracked his use of file sharing systems to download the material, which included photographs and videos.

He was arrested and charged in June at his home outside Oxford.

Streitel told Vassar in handing down her sentence that he could now begin to feel more comfortable with his nature, not only because society was beginning to accept transgender and transexual people on an everyday basis but also because his family had rallied around him. Several of his family members appeared in court and testified on his behalf during the long court proceeding, including his mother.

“Now you have opened up to your family, and look, they are in the courtroom for you,” the judge said. “When you get out of prison you can hold your head up and say, ‘I paid my duty of incarceration,’ and move on with your life.”

Streitel sentenced Vassar to 11 to 23 months in county prison, followed by 10 years of supervised probation. Under the terms of the sentence, he is prohibited from having contact with minors, must not use computers or the internet unless authorized, and undergo sex offender’s treatment.

Addressing Streitel, the 44-year-old Navy veteran and former Department of Defense intelligence specialist said that when he began looking at the images of children in sexual situations on his computer, “my mind was in a different place.”

“I realize now what I did,” Vassar said. “I wish I could go back and undo this thing, but obviously I can’t. I did this as a means of trying to help myself. I am sorry. I know what I did was wrong.” Vassar pleaded guilty in January to one count of dissemination of child pornography, 25 counts of possession of child pornography pictures, and five counts of possession of child pornography videos.

Vassar’s attorney, Steven Pacillio of West Chester, had asked Streitel to sentence his client to either a county prison term or simple probation, and to keep him out of the state prison system. Pacillio argued that he was unlikely to reoffend, and that his offense was not a “gateway” to further crimes.

Prosecutor Michelle Kelly Walsh, representing the Attorney General’s Office, asked Streitel to impose a state sentence of at least one year in prison.

Streitel said in sentencing Vassar that she was not concerned with whether the possession of such images was a “gateway” to some other behavior.

“It is criminal enough that 30 plus children were victimized,” she said.”This is about child pornography. We don’t want what he did happening again.”

“It is criminal enough that 30 plus children were victimized. This is about child pornography. We don’t want what he did happening again.” — Common Pleas Judge Phyllis Streitel

Randi Darwin Vassar