Pedophile, 100, gets more prison time

Lou Michel

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Updated: April 16, 2010, 12:24 pm
Published: April 16, 2010, 2:28 pm

Theodore A. Sypnier, the convicted 100-year-old pedophile, has been sentenced to two more years in prison for violating his parole, state parole officials announced today.

Sypnier will be almost 103 years old by the time he completes his latest incarceration for refusing to attend sex offender classes. 

Sypnier was released last fall to an East Side halfway house after serving 18 months in prison for the same type of parole violation.

A parole revocation specialist recommend to a judge in March that Sypnier finish out most of his parole behind bars.

"I don't want to go back. I'd rather die," a weeping Sypnier told The Buffalo News at that time.

The state Parole Board has now unanimously decided to impose the maximum punishment recommended at the hearing, according to Carole Claren-Weaver, a state parole spokeswoman. 

"I am very happy that the authorities are becoming more enlightened about how sex offenders are incorrigible and will never change, regardless of their age," said Martha Juchnowski, the 58-year-old daughter of Sypnier, who says her father molested her and other neighborhood girls when they lived in Riverside. 

Sypnier, whom authorities say sexually molested children for decades in Buffalo and later in the Town of Tonawanda, was released from prison in 2008, after he was arrested in 1999 and convicted of sexually inappropriate behavior with two young sisters.

The parole portion of Sypnier's sentence will not be completed until May 16, 2012. So after completing his 24 months in prison, parole officials still will have additional time to supervise him upon his release.

But Sypnier's victims and state lawmakers have said that he should be recommended for civil confinement prior to the completion of his latest prison sentence. In order for that to happen, the state's Office of Mental Health would have to determine he has a mental abnormality through a review by psychiatric professionals.

If that proved to be the case, the Office of Mental Health would then forward the findings to the state Attorney General's Office, which has the power to file a civil lawsuit seeking confinement.

A trial would eventually be held to determine if Sypnier required confinement.

At 100, Theodore Sypnier is New York state's oldest registered sex offender 

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