A 32-year-old Megan's Law offender, who a prosecutor says refuses to show remorse after admitting he sexually assaulted two children, was sentenced to 111/2 years in state prison on Friday.[...]
Robert Fedder III... was sentenced by Judge Thomas J. Critchley to the upper end of a plea deal, which called for a sentence between 10 and 12 years in prison. In November, he pleaded guilty to second-degree aggravated sexual assault and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to a concurrent four years in prison on the third-degree charge.
Fedder will be mandated to an extended term, meaning he must serve the entire sentence without parole eligibility since he is a repeat sex offender. LaCarrubba said he was convicted as a juvenile for sex assault in 2001 and again in 2007 for criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.
"Despite all these convictions, Judge, Mr. Fedder refuses to admit wrongdoing," LaCarrubba said. "In his pre-sentence interview, he denied committing any crime. He refuses to take responsibility for his actions and how those actions have effected others."
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Fedder's co-defendant and prior girlfriend, Teresa Nussbaum, 49, who will serve 48 hours in the county jail starting at noon April 26 and ending the morning of April 28, according to Critchley, was also sentenced to two years probation. In January, she pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child in exchange for a plea deal of 364 days in the county jail and up to five years probation.
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Shortly after he took a plea deal in November, Fedder was mandated to undergo an evaluation at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center, commonly referred to as Avenel.
In the evaluation, Corazza said that while it "appears" Fedder did not take responsibility for his actions, the findings were not accurate.
"I had an opportunity to speak with him and he had a misunderstanding with the therapist, he thought he was being treated with disrespect in the course of the pre-sentence report which led to an outburst," Corazza said.
Corazza also said the report indicated Fedder is at a low range of mental efficiency of intelligence and is diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
LaCarrubba called the Avenel report "disturbing," indicating that Fedder has blamed the victims for "putting him in these situations," and showed a fascination with fire and sharp objects, such as knives.
Functioning at a lower level "doesn't excuse his lack of remorse, sympathy or empathy."
"He has shown, over and over again, he's not amenable to rehabilitation," she said. "He doesn't care about anyone else, he only cares about what he wants."
He is someone, she said, "that needs to be locked away."
Critchley said, typically, cognitive challenges would be an argument for leniency, but said he couldn't give it much weight because of Fedder's offenses "with such serious consequences against vulnerable victims."
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