CLEARFIELD – A Morrisdale man found guilty of 194 counts of rape and other sex crimes was sentenced to 40-80 years in state prison on Thursday. Prior to sentencing Frederick St. John was also found to be a sexually violent predator by a state board.
Before handing down his sentence, presiding Judge Paul E. Cherry said a few words to the 48 year old St. John.
“You are a very sick man,” said Cherry. “You have violated one of the sacred trusts of this society.
“I hope, sir, that you think of what you did, how you destroyed the life of a young girl.”
As his sentence was being handed down, St. John was emotional, at times defiant, and other times near tears.
St. John’s case was part of three-day trial in October. He was accused of raping a then-girl for about a three year time-span. A jury convened for a little over two hours to go over the evidence presented to them. When they came back, they found St. John guilty of a total of 647 counts of various crimes.
St. John complained of ineffectiveness of council in his case. However, his attorney, Chris Pentz, and Clearfield County District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr. took their time and did their due diligence throughout Thursday’s proceedings.
Pentz cross examined psychologist William Allenbaugh II for close to an hour. Allenbaugh is the man who did St. John’s SVP assessment. Allenbaugh labeled St. John as having paraphelia NOS non-consent, for his actions against a teenager for a minimum of six months as well as the fact that she could not give her consent.
“Mr. St. John exercised power and control over her for an extended period of time,” Allenbaugh told the court.
Allenbaugh also noted that when questioned about his case, St. John painted himself as the victim.
“During interviews, he still maintained innocence,” said Allenbaugh, who added that St. John blamed family members for his predicament.
St. John said as much when he addressed Cherry before his sentence was announced.
“I’m standing here before you today and I didn’t commit these crimes,” said St. John.
The victim in the case addressed St. John through a letter that Cherry read.
“I never wanted it to come to this,” the letter read. “I wanted you to stop. You will never hurt me again.”
“You are a monster fit for no human contact,” read Cherry.
As part of his sentence, St. John is to have no contact with anyone under the age of 18. If he should get out, he will be on 25 years of probation. He was also ordered to have no contact with the victim or her immediate family. If and when he gets out, St. John will have to register with the Pennsylvania State Police as a sexually violent predator. The neighborhood he would reside in would then be notified about him moving their.
After his sentence was handed down, St. John was appointed new counsel by Cherry.
“That was an absolutely righteous sentence,” said Shaw after the session. “I’m extremely pleased.”
Shaw added that he felt the case was the most highly defended case he had prosecuted. Shaw also said that he felt the judge’s sentence sent a message to other people in Clearfield County thinking of committing crimes similar to St. John’s.
Shaw also wanted to give credit to those who investigated the case. He added that Clearfield-based state police did a good job investigating the case and showed great teamwork in the case as well.
“It’s a shame this stuff happens,” said Shaw.
He said he felt sympathy for the victim and that the only possible thing to be done was to give her justice.