After botched plea Judge hands Coffey 10 more years
After botched plea
Judge hands Coffey 10 more years
GUILDERLAND After admitting to raping a 19-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl, Robert J. Coffey of Guilderland botched his plea deal bargain and was sentenced to 35 years in jail.
Albany County Judge Steven W. Herrick handed down the sentence last Wednesday, adding 10 years to the original 25-year plea deal.
Coffey, 28, and his lawyer, Kent Sprotbery, had maintained that the charges were false until this May, when Coffey agreed to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree rape and take responsibility for his actions last summer in order to get a lighter sentence.
Richard Arthur, with the Albany County District Attorneys office, said Coffey did not fulfill his end of the bargain.
"He did not cooperate during the plea sentencing," said Arthur
The district attorneys office says that Coffey violated his plea agreement by denying responsibility for the rapes to probation officers during a pre-sentencing interview.
Herrick agreed and upped the sentence.
Sprotbery says Coffey did accept responsibility and that Herrick was "out to get" his client.
"He was interviewed by probation officers prior to the sentencing trial," Sprotbery told The Enterprise. "While not under oath, and with no lawyer present, he said some things contradictory to the plea deal."
Continuing, Sprotbery said that Coffey did not respond well to his probation and that he has "understandably" been under a lot of stress. However, Sprotbery said, "We’re not asking to withdraw our plea."
During Coffey’s court statement, he accepted responsibility, said Sprotbery, who quoted his client’s statement as saying, "It was a huge mistake"It’s all my fault." Sprotbery said that Coffey also told the court that he should have gotten help for his drug problem to prevent the incidents from ever happening, saving his victims’, as well as his own, families from all of the grief he caused.
Sprotbery claims that Judge Herrick was against his client from day one.
"He wanted to hang him from early on," said Sprotbery. "He was very hesitant to even take the deal at 25 years."
District Attorney David Soares has repeatedly called Coffey "a dangerous sexual predator," who needed to be taken off the streets.
Guilderland Police found cocaine in Coffeys possession after they arrested him for raping his 14-year-old neighbor at his Guilderland trailer park home. He also had a prior arrest in another state for conspiracy to distribute drugs.
According to the district attorneys office, Coffey lured his 14-year-old victim by telling her he needed someone to feed his iguana while he was gone. Once inside his 333 Church Rd. trailer, he told her he had a gun, then bound her wrists and raped her.
The 19-year-old victim was first, said the district attorneys office earlier, but she did not come forward until she saw Coffeys mugshot on a television news program after Guilderland Police arrested him on imprisonment and rape charges with the 14-year-old. After meeting at a bar, Coffey raped the young women while unconscious and left her along the side of Route 20 in Guilderland, the district attorneys office said.
Coffey knew both victims before the rapes occurred, his lawyer said.
Sprotbery said, because Herrick threw out the plea bargain and added 10 years to the sentence, he also threw out Coffeys waiver of appeal.
A notice of appeal has been filed with the Albany County Court, according to Sprotbery.
