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Superior Court upholds man’s lengthy sentence

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has rejected the argument by a 39-year-old Blair County man that his privacy rights were violated by police when a state trooper in 2021 searched his cellphone and found evidence of child sexual abuse.

Richard Scott Sensibaugh, who is serving a prison sentence of 67.5 to 135 years in the State Correctional Institution, Marienville, appealed his conviction and the lengthy sentence imposed by Blair County Judge Jackie Bernard.

A panel of Superior Court judges late last week dismissed his argument that he had a “privacy interest” in the cellphone, which was located by police in his girlfriend’s car.

The defense in pretrial hearings sought suppression of key evidence of Sensibaugh’s abuse of two 5-year-old girls found on the phone — which included videos.

The suppression court denied his attempt to bar use of the evidence during his bench trial before Bernard.

The Superior Court panel that rejected the privacy argument in an opinion handed down last Wednesday reviewed the circumstances that led to Sensibaugh’s arrest.

On April 2, 2021, while Sensibaugh left the residence to go shopping, his girlfriend went through a phone — which she gave to him to use — because she wanted to determine if he was seeing someone else.

However, what she discovered was a video of Sensibaugh engaged in a gruesome act of sexual abuse perpetrated against her sleeping 5-year-old daughter.

She immediately called police, and, after viewing the video, Trooper Eric Glunt took possession of the phone.

Two days later, officers obtained a search warrant, and, as stated in the Superior Court opinion, discovered “multiple videos and images in the trash bin of both (the daughter) and (another 5-year-old neighbor girl) being subjected to various sexual acts perpetrated by Sensibaugh.”

The trial judge rejected the privacy argument, noting that Sensibaugh, after being confronted by his girlfriend, fled the home, leaving his cellphone behind.

He “thus had no legitimate expectation of privacy in it,” the judge ruled.

In view of the evidence, he was convicted of 56 charges that included corruption of minors, indecent assault of a person unconscious, indecent assault, rape of a child, involuntary sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault of a child, photographing, videotaping, filming or depicting sexual acts of children and possession of child pornography.

The Superior Court panel that included Judges Anne E. Lazarus, Mary Jane Bowes and Megan King also heard arguments from Blair County District Attorney Pete Weeks that challenged the defense’s privacy argument.

“The societal interest in protecting a 5-year-old child and preserving direct digital evidence of the sexual abuse … outweighs any legitimate expectation of privacy in the property that Sensibaugh abandoned when he learned his crime had been discovered and police were on the way,” according to the prosecution’s response.

The panel hearing Sensibaugh’s appeal noted he fled without taking the phone.

“Based on the voluntary abandonment of the phone, in light of the totality of the circumstances and a proper balancing of societal interests, we conclude Sensibaugh no longer had a legitimate reasonable expectation of privacy in the phone,” the opinion stated.

The panel members agreed that Sensibaugh “had no standing to contest its seizure or search.”

In his appeal, Sensibaugh also challenged his lengthy sentence as an illegal “de facto” life sentence.

He will be 105 years old upon the completion of his minimum sentence.

The panel noted that the defense failed to bring its concerns about the sentence during his initial post-trial hearing.

That oversight means that the defense essentially waived the issue.

But, the court explained, Sensibaugh will be able to challenge his sentence as excessive if he files a post- conviction complaint that challenges the effectiveness of his attorney.

During his sentencing hearing, Sensibaugh told the judge, “I regret everything I’ve done. It was not me and not the person I am.”

First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith stated, “Let us not flinch away from what those two victims had to endure … and was recorded for everyone to watch.”

Bernard praised the mother for taking quick action upon discovering what was in the phone.

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