BERNE —  A 28-year-old Wright man, Justin Dergosits,  has begun serving three years in state prison after being sentenced  on Aug. 24 by Judge Thomas Breslin in Albany County Court on one felony charge for committing  a criminal sexual act and on one misdemeanor charge for endangering the welfare of a child.

The victims were underage boys, residents of Berne, and students at Berne-Knox-Westerlo.  The Enterprise is withholding the names and identifying features of the victims.

The mother of one 13-year-old victim read her son’s statement in court, which said in part, “Nowadays I have to worry about who I trust….I used to trust Justin. He used to be a good friend until he did what he did. Now everyone I meet I worry is he or she going to be like Justin.”

The father of another victim  said in court, “ My pain is fueled by the suffering of my child. He’s been scarred for the rest of his life.”

Dergosits had pleaded guilty on June 8 to one count of third-degree criminal sexual act, a felony. He admitted to having engaged  in “oral sexual conduct with a person less than 17-years -old.”  The victim was not yet 15 years old at the time.

The Albany County Sheriff’s  Office record of his Jan. 21 arrest  states,  “The suspect did  engage in oral sexual contact with the victim on two separate times and dates”  in 2015.

Dergosits also pleaded guilty  to one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. He admitted to having “attempted to view pornography and masturbate in the presence of a 13-year-old male victim.”

The arrest record contains a supporting deposition by the 13-year-old boy and another by  a father who says his son was once asked by Dergosits for a “blow job for $50.”

The mother of the 13-year-old said that Dergosits had propositioned her son “to have sexual relations on several occasions,” most recently on Jan. 20 — the day before she, two other adults, and two victims, came to the sheriff's substation in Clarksville  to level their accusations against Dergosits.

She told police  that on the evening of  Jan. 20, Dergosits had given her son a ride and had started to masturbate to pornography on his cell phone. In his deposition, the boy said Dergosits asked him “if I would mind if he jerked off….I told him I would get out of the truck and walk home.”

In his statement to police, the older victim said that on the same evening he, too,  had been given a ride by Dergosits “who attempted to have sexual relations with  him.”

Dergosits was arrested  at his home on Route 146 in Wright the evening of June 21. Dergosits is married, according to the arrest report, which also lists him as unemployed. The mother of a boy who was propositioned by  Dergosits told The Enterprise that he has offered handyman services under the name Do It All.

Alan Zuk, Berne town justice, issued a search warrant the same evening.   Police removed  a laptop, cell phone, and a phone bill from Dergosits’s home and he was held for grand jury action.

Bail was set at $42,500.  He was  released on bail on Feb. 26 and remained free until his sentencing on Aug. 21. The mother of a propositioned boy said Dergosits would “drive by our house and beep his horn,” during this period. She also said, “My son feels bad when he sees his truck come down our road.”

The 13-year-old, in his victim’s statement, said, “I’m also scared that if Justin sees me he’ll try to harm me….”

Four orders of protection were issued, two for the victims and two for boys who, although they  brought no charges against Dergosits, may have been among his victims. One of them is reported to have had a long series of sexual encounters with Dergosits in 2014,  when the boy was 16 years old.

The impact statement by the 13-year-old victim at the sentencing suggests that knowledge  of Dergosits activities may have been widespread:

“It also doesn’t help,” he said, “when people at school hear about the incident from other kids that were involved and come questioning me about what happened. It just makes me uncomfortable and embarrassed to talk about the incident.”

BKW response

All the victims who have come forward are BKW students. The Enterprise this week asked the district superintendent, Timothy Mundell, if he was aware of the problem

In response, BOCES Public Information Specialist and BKW spokesman Bill DeVoe emailed, “An issue was brought to our attention by a parent last February, and we were immediately in contact with law enforcement, who were already conducting an investigation.”  

In fact, Dergosits had been arrested Jan.  21, but, according to an emailed  statement by Sheriff Chief Deputy Michael Monteleone, “ The investigation did not involve the Berne-Knox-Westerlo school district.”

Monteleone said, “Information identifying the defendant and the charges filed was released.  Specific victim information was not released nor was it discussed outside  of the criminal justice system which is agency policy. “

Together these statements indicate that a parent, not the police, was first to make the school district aware of the allegations against Dergosits.

The Enterprise asked Albany County District Attorney Public Information Officer Cecilia Walsh  what party is responsible for  notifying the school district of an arrest of this kind, the charges, and any release on bail.

“That can depend on several factors,” she responded in an email, “including if the defendant is already under monitoring as a Sex Offender (which is mandated under Megan’s Law/SORA), which did not apply in this instance. Another factor is whether any alleged incidents happened on school grounds, which did not apply in this instance."

Mundell  said in an email that “counseling was offered to all students who identified themselves [to the school] as being affected by this situation.”

In response to Dergosits’s conviction and to the now- fuller account of what occurred over a period of at least two years, Mundell wrote:

“The safety and well-being of our students has been and always will be our number one priority. We understand that news of this nature can be very upsetting, especially in a close-knit-community such as ours. We will have counselors and other support available at the school for anyone in our BKW community who’d like to take advantage of it."

Justin Dergosits's father, Kevin Dergosits, is employed by BKW in the maintenance department.

Sentencing

Dergosits had been arrested before: In 2006 by Guilderland Police for a felony larceny when he was 18, in 2007 for harrassment and for issuing a bad check, and in 2008 for involvement with a female younger than 17.

In a statement at Friday’s sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer McCanney said Dergosits had provided no information that might  argue for leniency.

“The defendant was attempting,” she said, “to aid the sheriffs in ascertaining information on any other potential predators of children….It’s the People’s position that the defendant did not...live up to his end of the bargain.”

“Mr. Dergosits initially claimed that he could provide information that could possibly lead to the arrest and conviction of other individuals who were engaged in similar activity,” Monteleone told The Enterprise, “but was never able to provide  any other information of this type.”

Dergosits’s lawyer, Trey Smith, said in court, “My client tried but was not able to produce.” Smith did not return calls for comment.

Before pronouncing the sentence, Breslin said, “I find no basis to vary from the the negotiated plea.”

Walsh said of the three-year sentence Breslin handed down, “ There is a range of sentencing for this type of classified “E” Felony, with a maximum allowable sentence of 1 1/3  to 4 years in State Prison.  Based on the facts and circumstances of this case, the Court agreed that this sentence was appropriate in this matter.”

The sentence also calls for 10 years of post-release supervision and requires Dergosits to register as a sex offender.  Four orders of protection for victims were also issued.

“Three years is not long enough,” the mother of a boy who was propositioned told The Enterprise. She said her family had known Dergosits for three or four years. “He picked us because of our son. I feel violated...I want to be sure other people in the community know about this….I have a lot of guilt. I didn’t talk to my boys like I do with my daughter,” she said through tears.

The father of a victim who spoke in court said a  three-year  sentence is too lenient.

“We allow sex offenders,” he said,” to walk away from crimes after a short period of time in jail which gives them a second chance to repeat their actions because I assure you it will happen again. I read about it all the time, second- and third-time offenders.”

He urged the judge to “do your part in keeping our kids in our community safe from people like Justin by changing how we handle them.”

Dergosits’s statement to the court was one sentence long:  “I’m sorry that I did all this and I apologize for the pain I put these families through.”

On a recent post on his Facebook page, a victim wrote, “I wish I could hit the restart button.”

Updated on Sept. 2, 2016 with information on Justin Dergosit's 2007 arrests, and with the information that his father, Kevin Dergosits, is employed by Berne-Knox-Westerlo in the maintenance department.