Woman sentenced to two years in prison for rape of teen
Sanchez lured him over Internet, bore his child after months of sexual contact
A North Buffalo woman — who pretended she was her daughter’s teenage friend in order to lure a 14-year-old boy over the Internet for sex and later gave birth to his child — was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison.
Veronica Sanchez, 32, of Jasper Parrish Drive, denounced by prosecutors as a “sexual predator,” was given the mandatory prison term for her plea to a count of second-degree rape and two counts of criminal sexual act.
State Supreme Court Justice John L. Michalski told Sanchez he was “disturbed by [her] predatory conduct.”
Sanchez, the single mother of five children, pleaded for mercy from the judge and was supported by the stepfather of her victim.
Sanchez, who admitted to the charges in mid-May, also was barred by Michalski from communicating in any way with the victim until Aug. 5, 2018, fined $1,350 and placed on the state’s Sex Offender Registry.
Sanchez faces additional prison time if she violates Michalski’s order of protection.
“We were hoping for a probation- type sentence, but the judge did see things differently,” said Bruce Kirby, Sanchez’s attorney. “It’s something we live with and move forward.”
Sanchez was sexually intimate with the boy, whose identity has been withheld, in her house for months, according to prosecutor Marni Bogart, who said Sanchez initially pretended she was 17 and the friend of her teenage daughter in order to seduce the victim over the Internet.
The case developed upon a report to the Buffalo Police Department’s Sex Offense Squad, which included information that sexual relations transpired between a 30-year-old woman and the 14-year-old victim, according to John DeFranks, first deputy district attorney.
“[Sanchez] became pregnant, and there was a baby born in January,” DeFranks said.
The following month, a friend of the victim’s family told the boy’s mother that he might have fathered Sanchez’s fifth child. Bogart interviewed the boy in March at the Child Advocacy Center when he was brought there by a parent, according to prosecutors.
DNA testing confirmed the victim was the father of Sanchez’s baby boy, who was born Jan. 15.
Before she was indicted, Sanchez admitted she had been sexually intimate with the boy at her house several times from March to July 2007. She told authorities she thought the boy was 18.
She renewed that plea Tuesday, insisting to Michalski that she didn’t know her teenage lover’s true age. She said she was “so very sorry for everything.”
“Our position essentially was that it wasn’t a violent forceful [rape] issue at all,” Kirby said. “The two of them got together and were intimate.
“But, it’s the law, and it’s on the books, and we’ll try to make the best of it.”
The stepfather of the now- 16-year-old victim said he was upset about Sanchez being sent to prison. He had asked Michalski to spare Sanchez the mandatory state prison term, telling him that she has been giving his family ample time with the newborn.
Sanchez, who was free on bail pending her sentencing, was remanded into custody Tuesday.
Kirby would not identify who is caring for Sanchez’s children, only saying that they are “in good care” at the moment.
mgryta@buffnews.com and tpignataro@buffnews.com
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