By Jen McCaffery
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH — A judge sentenced a Beach paramedic to 17 years in prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting a pre-teenage girl.
Circuit Judge H. Thomas Padrick Jr. followed a jury’s recommendation in sentencing Steven Mark Frick, 43.
“I just feel sorry for the girl, that she had to go through all this,” Padrick said.
After a two-day trial, jurors convicted Frick on all five felony charges: forcible sodomy, two counts of object sexual penetration, and two counts of aggravated sexual battery, all to someone under age 13.
Prosecutor Scott Vachris pointed to the girl’s testimony and to Frick’s admission to Detective L.J. Geluso that he had molested the girl, which jurors watched on videotape.
Vachris pointed out that Frick had also written an apology letter to the girl, who was 10 when he began abusing her last year.
Frick also wrote letters to the girl’s mother after he was arrested, asking that she ask her daughter to recant her story.
Frick testified that he did not tell the truth when he spoke with the detective and that the girl’s claims were also false.
Defense attorney Eric P. Korslund argued that the prosecution had not proved that molestation had taken place.
Frick, who had worked full-time as a city paramedic since 2004, was taken back into custody after he was sentenced. He has been incarcerated since his arrest and was suspended without pay.
Bruce Nedelka, the city’s EMS division chief, said the department will now notify state authorities as required about the convictions.
“Ultimately, he’ll no longer be employed,” Nedelka said.
Copyright 2010 Landmark Communications, Inc.