Man gets 30-year sentence for molesting girls

PALMER — A man who claimed at trial that the sleep medication Ambien caused him to molest two young girls was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday.

Mario Paradiso, 56, spoke only briefly to apologize to his victims at a hearing in Superior Court in Palmer.

Judge Vanessa White said, in handing down the sentence, that she had aimed for the middle of the road because Paradiso’s crimes were neither minor nor egregious when weighed against other child sexual abuse cases.

“My ultimate finding is that Mr. Paradiso is a garden-variety pedophile. There’s nothing interesting or unique in him even in that,” she said.

Paradiso was arrested in December of 2007. He was charged with molesting two girls who at the time were 5 and 7. At trial, his attorneys argued that the prescription drug Ambien — known in some patients to cause sleepwalking, sleep-driving and sleep-eating — caused him to act without knowing what he was doing. White ruled in trial that Paradiso hadn’t proven he was even taking the drug and that she didn’t believe the argument that he was experiencing, as she put it, a “mental disturbance.”

At Friday’s hearing, the girls’ mother told Paradiso she was believed he should be put away for a long time.

“It’s my job to protect my kids and I feel like I didn’t protect them,” she said. “I’m thankful to the justice system taking away your freedom because what you took from them is so much more.”

Assistant District Attorney Paul Roetman said that the way the laws in the state are set up, the penalty for sexual abuse of a minor falls into a very rigid sentencing structure, proscribing a 25 years at the bottom and 30 at the top for a first-degree charge and 5-12 years for a second-degree charge. Paradiso was convicted of both first- and second-degree sexual abuse of a minor. Really, Roetman said, what White’s decision would come down to is how much of the time imposed on the two charges ran consecutive and how much concurrent.

Roetman argued that all the time should be consecutive.

“This is a case where we have two separate victims,” he said. “When one was being victimized the other saw.”

He asked for a total sentence of 30 years with an additional eight years of suspended time.

Paradiso’s attorney, Andrew Weinraub, began his remarks by apologizing to the mother of Paradiso’s victims for having to question her daughters at trial.

“It’s for her to decide if she thinks I’m genuine or not,” Weinraub said, but, “I don’t relish having to cross-examine poised, intelligent, beautifully young girls.”

Weinraub argued that as much time as legally permissible should be concurrent. He pointed out that for many years leading up to his arrest Paradiso was a productive member of society. He had a criminal history but had put it behind him. He also pointed to his client’s age, saying that whatever sentence came down would likely amount to most of the rest of Paradiso’s life.

He also said he felt that the penalties for sexual abuse of a minor in Alaska seem disproportionately severe.

“In my professional opinion, someday the state of Alaska and the Supreme Court will reconsider the proportionality,” he said.

He asked for a composite sentence of just over 25 years in prison.

White, in handing down her sentence, noted how odd it felt to be dealing with such complicated sentencing rules.

“It is ironic to me that I have had to pick up a calculator today to figure out the sentencing,” she said. “We must nurture and protect our children. It is so simple. It is not about complicated sentencing schemes.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.