Judge defends lengthy sentence
Sensibaugh serving 67.5 to 135 years for child sexual assaults
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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A Blair County judge is defending the lengthy sentence she handed down in October to a man who sexually assaulted two 5-year-old girls in 2021 and used a cellphone to record the assaults.
Judge Jackie Bernard, in an opinion that will be forwarded to the state Superior Court, defended her decision to sentence 38-year-old Richard Scott Sensibaugh to 67.5 to 135 years' incarceration.
"The sentence imposed was an individualized sentence, which was supported by the record and took into account the amended presentence investigation, the sentencing guidelines, all mitigating evidence proffered by the defense, facts of the case, the victim impact statement, the defendant's rehabilitative needs, the protection of society and punishment," Bernard wrote.
In the appeal filed on Sensibaugh's behalf, Pittsburgh defense attorney David J. Shrager is arguing that his client received a life sentence for the offenses.
Bernard, who presided over a trial-by-court in June where she evaluated the evidence against Sensibaugh, found him guilty of 59 counts of child sexual offenses that state police at Hollidaysburg filed in 2021. The offenses included child rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault and offenses recognizing that Sensibaugh recorded the assaults.
At Sensibaugh's sentencing hearing in October, associate defense attorney Lyle Dresbold asked for a sentence of 10 years' incarceration, followed by a lengthy probationary period. He said it would put Sensibaugh in a position to pursue sex offender treatment and give him an incentive to complete it.
When Bernard imposed Sensibaugh's 67.5 to 135 years' incarceration, she also ordered him to complete a psychosexual evaluation and follow recommendations. She also told him to complete a cognitive behavioral therapy program.
In support of the sentence, Bernard's opinion points out that she imposed incarceration periods within the standard range of the state's sentencing guidelines for the offenses. While she imposed consecutive sentences on 12 counts of the convictions, she said that accounted for separate sexual acts for each of the two victims.
"The court could have easily sentenced the defendant to a longer period of incarceration based on the (sentencing) guidelines," the judge wrote. "However, the sentencing scheme was deliberate."
The appeal being pursued on Sensibaugh's behalf also raises questions about procedures police used to search a cellphone containing the sexually explicit videos Sensibaugh recorded. The Claysburg woman who found the video recordings -- who had been in an off-and-on relationship with Sensibaugh -- gave police permission to search a cellphone because she was paying for the cellphone's cost and maintenance and because of the videos she had found.
In addressing those challenges, Bernard referenced a November 2022 ruling by Judge Timothy M. Sullivan, concluding that the woman had the authority to allow police to search a phone Sensibaugh had been using.
First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith, who had argued before Sullivan that the search was lawful, said in October that Sullivan subsequently generated a "detailed and thoughtful decision" that should hold up if appealed.
Online records show Sensibaugh is now an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.