Testimony over prison time for sex offender who refuses treatment

7-30-15 Pennsylvania:

By the time Akbar A. Rivera was 17, he'd sexually assaulted two children.

Rivera's most recent victim was a 12-year-old girl whom he forced himself upon repeatedly in 2007 while living in south Bethlehem. Because he had an equivalent offense as a juvenile in New York, he was charged in Northampton County as an adult, where he pleaded guilty and ended up with a 21/2- to five-year prison sentence.

More than seven years have gone by since the now 24-year-old Rivera was charged and later convicted, but he remains imprisoned to this day. That's because he has refused to attend any mandated sex-offender therapy, which the officials supervising him believe is necessary if he is not to be a threat to the community.

Though Rivera has already served the entirety of his original prison term, he remains jailed as a probation violator who has seen just one day on the street since his arrest, according to state prison records.

And because Rivera has continued to spurn counseling, authorities want him to stay behind bars.

"He's refusing to get treatment. He has absolutely no interest in self-rehabilitation," Assistant District Attorney Tatum Wilson said.

Rivera is considered a sexually violent predator, a designation that brings a lifetime of registration as a sex offender and enhanced reporting and counseling requirements. Wilson said it would be "reckless" to allow his release.

On Wednesday, President Judge Stephen Baratta took testimony on authorities' request that Rivera be re-sentenced to further prison time. The hearing came as Rivera has been deemed a probation violator once before — in 2013, when he was sentenced to an additional 30 days to two years behind bars, a term that he completed without release in May.

Wilson wouldn't say how much further prison time she'd like Rivera to face. But Baratta could give him up to another seven years, the total that remains of his probationary term.

State probation officer Tina Kominsky said Rivera attended just one sex-offender treatment class in prison, when he announced his desire to "max out" his sentence and signed himself out of further sessions.

While jailed, Rivera has been cited for misconduct that includes contraband, failing to comply with guards' orders and slashing a fellow Northampton County Prison inmate with a razor in 2009, Kominsky said.

Rivera's public defender, Matthew Goodrich, highlighted that his client does not need to be in prison in order to attend sex offender counseling. Goodrich suggested that last time, Rivera was tripped up by another requirement he faced: that he find a suitable place to live, a difficulty for someone labeled a violent predator.

Goodrich also noted that if Rivera remains in jail for the next seven years, he won't be able to be kept any longer regardless of his behavior.

That's true, Kominsky said, though if Rivera continued to refuse counseling then, he could face arrest for failing to comply with his Megan's Law requirements, a felony.

"The possibility exists to keep this cycle going for the rest of all time?" Goodrich asked.

"Unfortunately, if he chooses not to comply," Kominsky said.

The hearing was recessed without a decision by Baratta, who said he will take further testimony in two weeks.

The delay came amid a kerfuffle involving a psychologist at Rockview State Prison, who was scheduled to testify by video.

The psychologist, Kevin Miskell, initially refused to do so despite a court order, according to Baratta. Eventually Miskell did appear on the video, but his responses brought ire from Baratta, who accused him of being intentionally evasive.

Miskell said he gave Rivera a psychological test under which he was recommended to complete an 18- to 24-month sex offender program. But Miskell, who coordinates sex-offender treatment at Rockview, claimed that he couldn't say whether Rivera would be a danger without the treatment.

Baratta said Miskell was acting as though he did "not know anything" about his job.

"I'm just kind of shocked about that," Baratta said.

"I don't know what to say to you, sir," Miskell stammered, before Baratta ended his testimony. ..Source.. by Riley Yates