Dania Beach 68-year-old Randy Jerome Pozdol was found guilty of drugging his girlfriend's two young children and filming himself having sex with them. He was in court yesterday for sentencing and presented a series of defenses that, believe it or not, actually made him seem even worse. The Miami Herald couldn't break it down into a list in their coverage of the hearing, but we can. Here are four of Pozdol's most offensive pleas for leniency.
1. He doesn't have a prior record.
Drugging two children younger than 10 and filming sex with them is bad, sure, but it was his only crime. Come on, judge! Have a heart!
2. He's an addict.
From the Herald:
Pozdol told the judge he had struggled with alcohol addiction, and as he tried to tackle it, a sex addiction took over. He was active in Alcoholics Anonymous and claimed to have been sober for 20 years. His involvement with child pornography, he said, was "a really bad time in my life."Also worth noting: The victims' mother was Pozdol's sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous. She was also dating Pozdol and appears in another tape Pozdol made in which he has sex with her while she is unconscious. She died of an overdose in 2006. "Bad time" indeed.
3. Hasn't he already been punished enough?
Pozdal's attorney, Ed O'Donnell, said Pozdal was being "punished in another way, by a higher authority," because Pozdal's son Drew was killed in a police shooting last year, in perhaps the first claims of double-jeopardy with the court of the Almighty.
4. It doesn't count because the kids were unconscious.
Pozdol asked for the mandatory minimum (15 years) because, he says, he "did not hurt those children... they didn't know" what happened. See? All better. Never mind that he had a chest full of porn (in formats that included 8mm film) and was, according to investigators, "the number one IP address in the state trading in child pornography."
The case just goes to show how disgusting criminal defense can get when somebody's against a wall. But Pozdol? He got the maximum sentence -- 30 years. His attorney asked the judge if Pozdol could have some time to get his affairs in order before he's taken off to prison to await death; the judge denied the request.
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