NIAGARA COUNTY
2 sex offenders face life in mental institution
LOCKPORT — Two more sex offenders appeared in State Supreme Court here last week, facing the possibility of being committed to a mental institution for the rest of their lives because of the sexual offenses.
One was a former resident of the Midtown Inn at 22nd and Niagara streets in Niagara Falls, a boarding house whose clientele includes many sex offenders.
Michael C. Motzer, 27, formerly of Lyndonville, was jailed after his parole officer saw him and another sex offender from the inn socializing with children at a food giveaway at 19th Street and Walnut Avenue in Niagara Falls on April 9.
Motzer didn’t fight earlier this year when the state Office of Mental Health recommended him for civil confinement. But instead of being committed, he was placed on a strict parole regimen.
He lasted less than a month on that before being accused of violating its terms. That brought him back in front of Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. for reconsideration.
In the other case, Michael C. Bass, 37, of North Tonawanda, admitted having a mental abnormality that makes him likely to commit more sex crimes. This came after a state psychologist testified Wednesday that Bass named 51 boys he had sex with over the years.
“In the realm of pedophiles, he’s at the high end,” testified the psychologist, Dr. Paul Etu.
Bass pleaded guilty in 2000 to second- degree sodomy and second-degree kidnapping for taking a 12-year-old boy on an eight-day cross-country trip in September 1999. The boy was sexually assaulted at least four times that year. Bass was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Etu said Bass was open about his sexual past. Besides the 51 boys, Bass said he had sex with about 20 men in prison.
“Most pedophiles are felt to have that diagnosis forever,” Etu said. “We work with them in hopes they won’t act out on their urges.”
At one point in his life, Bass moved out of state and went to work at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, where he committed no sex crimes against the largely juvenile clientele, according to his attorney, John R. Nuchereno. That shows Bass is capable of self-control, Nuchereno said.
Motzer pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse and attempted first-degree coercion, and was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2004.
Motzer originally was indicted on charges of raping a woman twice on consecutive days in September 2002, and on the second occasion, forcing the victim’s sister to hold her down. He also was convicted of a statutory rape in Orleans County.
After his admission of his mental abnormality, Motzer was sent to the Midtown Inn by the state Division of Parole. Niagara County Social Services uses the inn to house homeless welfare recipients; many sex offenders are in that category after leaving prison.
Parole Officer Susannah Mattingly testified that Motzer was a problem from his first meeting with her March 11.
Mattingly said Motzer socialized with other sex offenders in the Midtown Inn despite being told to stay away from them as much as possible, and disobeyed orders that he not call a woman, a former counselor at a rehabilitation clinic, who had been fired for getting into a relationship with Motzer.
“I don’t think he takes seriously what he needs to do. He’s always saying, ‘I wasn’t thinking’ or ‘I was being an idiot.’ He acts before he thinks,” Mattingly testified.
Motzer’s violation hearing will continue July 28. Meanwhile, Bass is to return to court Aug. 6 to hear whether Kloch will commit him or place him on strict parole.
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