D.A. wants tougher sentence for former pol
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan has approved a motion for reconsideration in the sentencing of former Radnor Township Commissioner William Spingler, according to spokeswoman Emily Harris.
Spingler, 76, of Paoli, was sentenced to 23 months of intermediate punishment Thursday for fondling a 103-year-old woman’s breast last year. The probationary sentence includes 60 days of electronic home monitoring, but does not require Spingler to register as a sex offender or be supervised under special sex offender rules of probation and parole.
The sentence handed down by Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge John Capuzzi also ordered Spingler to have no unsupervised or inappropriate contact with the victim, and to enter into sex offender treatment and follow any recommendations.
Harris said Assistant District Attorney Ryan Grace will seek reconsideration on two points – that Spingler have no contact with the victim at all and that he be supervised by the sexual offenders unit of Adult Probation and Parole.
Grace had been seeking a prison term of three to 23 months followed by seven years of probation at sentencing Thursday. While the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board found Spingler does not meet the criteria for a sexually violent predator, Grace said there are aggravating factors in the case, including Spingler’s position of trust with the victim, the fact that there were multiple events and that the assaults involved a person who could not defend herself.
“Sexual exploitation of the elderly doesn’t get as much attention in our community as sexual exploitation of children, but it is just as horrific because both on them constitute sexual violence against vulnerable populations,” Grace told the judge Thursday.
Spingler was convicted in June on two counts of indecent assault on a person with a mental disability. He admitted at trial that the first two counts took place at the Genesis Healthcare Wayne Center in Radnor on Dec. 15 and Dec. 17, 2016, but denied a third assault had taken place Dec. 23. He was acquitted on that charge.
Spingler testified that he has known the victim for 57 years and said she lived with him for eight years before she was placed in the center in August 2015.
The victim is diagnosed with dementia, but Spingler said she usually recognized him during his frequent visits. That changed at a birthday party Dec. 8, when Spingler said she did not recognize him at all. It was the same when Spingler visited again Dec. 15, he said.
“I got nothing, no recognition out of her and I made the biggest mistake of my life,” he said at trial. “I thought for shock value, you know, I could get her to say something, let her know I was there. I touched her breast. It was the dumbest thing I ever did, but I did it to get her attention and let her know that I was there.”
A nursing assistant testified that she witnessed the first assault and reported it to her unit manager. Another employee said she saw Spingler touching the victim’s breast again under a blanket on Dec. 17. The third incident allegedly occurred when Spingler was saying goodbye to the victim Dec. 23. He had wrapped an arm around the woman and was squeezing her breast through her shirt, according to testimony at trial.
Capuzzi said at sentencing that he had weighed Spingler’s crimes against his lack of prior contacts with the law, letters from the community handed up by defense attorney James Pierce and psychological evaluations indicating Spingler is a low risk for reoffending.
Spingler was the first Democrat to join the Radnor Board of Commissioners in 1970. He also served as a county commissioner from 1972 to 1980 before returning to the Radnor board in 1991. He stayed in office until 2015, stepping down as president.