×

Judge denies relief to sex-offender

‘More unwillingness to admit the horrible thing...’

Photo submitted to Times Observer Frank Williams

A man who entered guilty pleas in 2015 to sexually assaulting three girls was denied post sentence relief on Tuesday.

Franklin D. Williams, 71, of State Correctional Institution — Somerset, is serving a sentence of 78 to 156 months in state prison after pleading guilty to three counts of aggravated indecent assault — without consent, with female victims ages 5, 6, and 7 years old.

Williams petitioned the Warren County Court of Common Pleas for relief.

His attorney, Elizabeth Ziegler, asked that he be allowed to withdraw his plea in one of the three dockets.

Information about one victim was discussed at the hearing.

According to testimony, Williams touched the girl in her “private area” with his hand and with a massager.

Ziegler played a video of Williams’ interview at the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Starbrick with former State Police Corporal Brian Zeybel on the stand.

In that video, Williams tells Zeybel about his assault of one victim.

After that, Zeybel asks if there were others.

Williams talks about two more.

All of the victims knew Williams.

At a previous hearing, Judge Gregory Hammond said Williams had become “a neighborhood grandfather figure.”

Williams was classified as a sexually violent predator at the time of sentencing.

The Pennsylvania Superior court found that the state’s way of classifying offenders as sexually violent predators was unconstitutional.

Ziegler argued that the label should be removed from her client.

But, that ruling is not retroactive, according to Hammond.

“I was questioned by only one person,” Williams said of the sexually violent predator designation. “He said, ‘On a scale of one to ten, you’re a negative one.”

“He said, ‘There’s no way I think you’re a sexual predator,'” Williams said.

“Even though you sexually assaulted three little girls?” Greene said.

“Yes,” Williams said.

Zeybel testified that there was no report immediately after the late-2013 incident involving the girl in question. He said the parents of the girl involved confronted Williams, who said they were “just tickling and playing,” according to Zeybel. “They kept the child away from him.”

“Did the video contradict (that explanation),” Greene asked Zeybel.

“Oh, yes,” Zeybel said.

Greene asked if Zeybel had asked Williams if there had been ‘penetration.’

“He told me there was penetration,” Zeybel said.

The definition of ‘penetration’ was a key point in the hearing.

“Nobody ever explained to me what actual penetration was,” Williams said on the stand. “As far as I’m concerned no one was ever penetrated.”

“I know what penetration is,” he said and gave a definition.

“What do you think when the topic is sexual assault of a child?” Greene said.

Williams gave another definition that closely matched the legal one given by Greene, and said that, by that definition, “I never penetrated anybody,” Williams said. “I fondled, but I never penetrated anybody.”

In the video, Zeybel asked if it was “fair to say your hand was touching her genitalia?”

“Yes,” Williams said.

“It was inside her?” Zeybel said.

“Yes,” Williams said.

Hammond asked Williams why he told Zeybel on the video that there was penetration.

“I was in her pants,” Williams said.

Zeybel said the girl had said the massager reminded her of a pencil.

That did not agree with the image of a four-legged “spider” massager Williams had talked about on the video.

Later, with Williams on the stand, Greene asked why the girl said that.

“There was another one,” Williams said.

“A pencil one?” Greene asked.

“Yes,” Williams said.

“Do you remember pleading guilty to being inside of her… ?” Greene asked.

“No,” Williams said. “If I did, I was probably told by Mr. Parroccini.”

Warren County Chief Public Defender John Parroccini, formerly Williams’ attorney, was called to the stand.

“In that nine months, I don’t think I talked to Mr. Parroccini more than 15 minutes,” Williams said.

Ziegler asked him a number of questions about his representation of Williams.

In many cases, Parroccini had to answer in general terms. “I don’t have one or two clients,” he said. “I have a thousand clients.”

Hammond ruled against Williams’ claims that Parroccini’s representation was ineffective.

In his closing argument, Greene said Williams’ defense that he did not know what ‘penetration’ was was “a lame excuse.”

“He sexually molested little girls — five and six (years old),” Greene said. “He admits he used (the pencil massager) on … the seven-year-old.”

“You did engage in penetration,” Hammond said. “You admitted that. You pled guilty to that. You did engage in sexual assault.”

“I don’t buy Mr. Williams’ selective intelligence,” he said. “It’s more unwillingness to admit the horrible thing that he did.”

“I sentenced an elderly man that, over a period of years, sexually offended three little girls,” Hammond said. “I aggravated the sentences because of the harm that he did to the girls.”

“I’m denying the petition for post conviction relief,” he said.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today