Story Created:
Sep 8, 2010 at 9:04 PM PST
Story Updated:
Sep 8, 2010 at 9:04 PM PST
LYNWOOD — A paperwork mix-up may be to blame for Jonas Silverio’s sentencing hearing being pushed back to Dec. 10.
The hearing was supposed to be held Tuesday but the former Firebaugh High School principal’s new defense attorney, Leonard Levine, asked for the delay.
“He hasn’t been sent out,” for a 90-day diagnostic evaluation study, Levine said at Tuesday’s hearing before Compton Superior Court Judge Allan Webster, who was sitting in for Judge John Cheroske.
Silverio, who pleaded no contest to 10 counts of sexually molesting four female students between 14 and 15 years of age in June, was ordered by Judge Cheroske to undergo the diagnostic evaluation by the state Department of Corrections before Sept. 7.
Levine, who is Silverio’s third lawyer, requested the hearing be pushed back since his client had not been sent to the Department of Corrections as ordered by Cheroske in June.
“Originally, [Silverio] entered his plea and was referred to the Department of Corrections for what is called a diagnostic study, where they do an evaluation to determine whether they believe he is suitable for probation,” Levine said. “That report is then sent to the judge, and then we will have his sentencing hearing at which time we will be asking the court for probation. I assume the prosecution may be asking for prison. I don’t know, depending on the results of the report.
“There was some mix-up in the paperwork, so he has remained at county jail and now he has been re-referred and hopefully, he will go there, we will get the report and we’ll handle his sentencing in December,” Levine said.
Sandi Gibbons of the District Attorney’s office confirmed that “the diagnostic evaluation study [had] not been completed.
“What they do is send them to state prison where they are given a battery of tests, mental tests … to make a determination of whether a person should be incarcerated or placed on probation or parole,” Gibbons said.
“When a defendant is convicted of an offense punishable by imprisonment in state prison, the court, if it concludes that a case requires such diagnosis and treatment services as can be provided at a diagnostic facility at the Department of Corrections, may order that the defendant be placed temporarily in such a facility for a period not to exceed 90 days, with the further provision that in such order, that the director of the Department of Corrections report to the court his diagnosis and his recommendation concerning the defendant within the 90-day period.”
While it is called a probation sentencing hearing, Gibbons said “it is very confusing, but it’s a hearing that will determine what his sentence is going to be,” and it doesn’t mean that probation is the only option.
While he is new to the case, Levine said nothing has changed since Silverio entered his plea in June.
“So the court has re-issued the same order, everything else remains the same,” he said. “We will still be arguing what’s the appropriate sentence in December at his sentencing hearing. … We will be asking for probation, because the actions that he admitted to … means he is a suitable candidate for probation. As you may know, there were no acts of actual sexual contact beyond, I believe, kissing or hugging. Without trying to minimize that, we think the nature of those acts and his admission of responsibility is remorse that would make him a suitable candidate for probation.”
Levine added that Silverio could be on probation for up to five years and still have to register as a sex offender. “He could also get up to a year in county jail, of which he has already served, or will have by the time we come back,” he said.
Silverio, who also was a teacher and girls volleyball coach at several school sites in the Lynwood Unified School District — including Lynwood Middle School, Lynwood High School as well as Firebaugh High School — pleaded no contest to molesting four girls, three of whom played on various volleyball teams he coached.
Silverio, who served as principal at Firebaugh for four years, was placed on administrative leave May 12, 2009, by the school board amid the investigation by the Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau. On June 10, 2009, the school board accepted Silverio’s resignation, effective June 30, 2009.
The following month, Silverio was arrested on 17 counts. An additional charge was later added for a total of 18 counts.
Aside from working in the Lynwood Unified School District, it was discovered that Silverio also taught at a number of schools throughout Los Angeles County. Victims, according to the D.A.’s office, can be traced to allegations that date back to 1995 at a private school in Los Angeles, in which there was no record of him teaching there, but where financial evidence of his employment was found.
That 1995 case was heard in court last October as part of victim testimony, but it was not allowed because the statute of limitations had run out. That victim would have been the fifth in the case.
According to testimony that was heard last October, victims testified that the crimes also took place in his car or during field trips.
Prosecutors said Silverio would force himself on his victims, trying to kiss them and force his hands under their clothing.
Victims in this case will be allowed to deliver impact statements to the court on Dec. 10 prior to the final sentencing.
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