COMMENTARY
Donn Esmonde: State is blind to Sypnier’s threat to kids
Story tools:
Share this story:
I am happy to report that, according to state officials, 100-year-old pedophile Ted Sypnier has reformed.
I do not know what turned this guy’s life around. Maybe it was a prison diet of thin soup and mushy gruel. Maybe he found God, hidden somewhere in the corner of his prison cell. Perhaps, after decades of stealing the innocence of children, he found a less perverse obsession, like crocheting.
If you believe any of that, you must work for the state’s Office of Mental Health.
OMH officials could have put Sypnier, Buffalo’s unrepentant child abuser, on the road to permanent confinement. Instead they decided that, despite a lifetime of damaging children, he is no longer a threat.
What, did he complete a 12-step Pedophiles Anonymous program? Slap on an anti-pedophile patch?
Mike Hogan, OMH commissioner, said last week that there is no reason to recommend Sypnier—currently in jail for a parole violation— for throwaway-the-key civil confinement as a likely-to-molest-again monster. At a state legislative hearing, Hogan cited Sypnier’s clean record while briefly independent and low repeat numbers from similar offenders.
“[Only] if we feel that the risk of re-offense is in the range of a third,” said Hogan, “do we go forward.”
I do not know what grade Hogan got in math class. But thinking that Sypnier has changed his ways at age 100 disregards six decades of perverse behavior and ignores the laws of probability. Believing that there is less than a 1-in-3 chance that Sypnier will damage another child is beyond wishful thinking. It is delusional.
Do not take my word for it. Ask Sypnier’s daughter. Martha Juchnowski says her father molested her as a child. She says she saw him molest other kids. She celebrated in 2000 when he was put away for eight years for sex crimes against two Town of Tonawanda sisters, ages 4 and 7, whose single mother let the “kindly” old man baby-sit them. The woman may never forgive herself.
“I am absolutely outraged by this,” Juchnowski said by phone from her North Carolina home. “The lives of children are at stake. My father has never stopped. If he’s not doing it, he’s making plans, sizing people up, looking at children and their living arrangements. If there is a single mother, it’s easier for him. That is his pattern.”
Juchnowski told OMH’s Hogan that she would go to Albany to make the case for putting her father away. The polite reply: Don’t call us. We’ll call you.
A legion of folks back up Juchnowski, from her siblings to Terry King, who runs the halfway house where Sypnier recently lived. Even at age 100, Sypnier shows no remorse and takes no responsibility. He blames the system for railroading him and accused mothers of victims of “blackmail.” He sent me a jailhouse letter last year, whining about how unfairly he was treated.
Jim Hayes, the ordinarily mild-mannered assemblyman from Amherst, got in Hogan’s face during last week’s hearing.
“It boggles the mind,” Hayes said, voice rising, “that the state’s laws cannot protect the people of our community.”
I do not know whether Hogan is a clueless bureaucrat or simply arrogant. Whatever the case, he just handed Ted Sypnier—the master manipulator—a free pass to strike again.
All we can do is hold our breath and hope that Sypnier keeps going to jail for violating parole. All we can do is pray that he does not get a chance to pull his “harmless old man” act on another naive mother.
The guy is beyond redemption. He has spent the last 60 years proving it. If Sypnier gets out from under the eye of the law, and puts his hands on another kid, we at least know whom to blame: Mike Hogan, OMH, (518) 474-4403.
desmonde@buffnews.com
Reader comments
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Comments have been disabled.
Due to a high volume of submissions that violate The News’ guidelines, commenting is no longer available on this story. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, click here to get information on contributing to The News’ opinion pages.