Molester says sentence could ruin his business

The Spot ice cream stand owner asks judge to reduce penalty for fondling girl, 12.

By Riley Yates

The owner of a Lower Nazareth Township ice cream stand claims his three-month sentence for molesting a 12-year-old girl could ruin business.

In Northampton County Court on Friday, Michael Yavorski's lawyer said The Spot, off Route 191, could be forced to close forever because of the negative attention his client has received.

"The collateral consequences for Mr. Yavorski here are tremendous," defense attorney Scott Wilhelm said in a hearing asking for the sentence to be reduced.

Earlier this month, Yavorski, 52, of Lower Nazareth was given three months to two years behind bars, plus a year of probation, after admitting to misdemeanors of indecent assault and furnishing alcohol to a minor. Police said one day in the summer of 2006 he twice fondled the girl and gave her beer.

At the Oct. 1 sentencing, the girl, now 15, said she has been hospitalized five times since the assault and has resorted to cutting herself to ease tension.

Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano did not issue a ruling Friday on the reconsideration request, but he made clear he believes the sentence was appropriate.

"He is a sex offender," Giordano said after Wilhelm argued Yavorski wasn't, since the two crimes he pleaded guilty to do not require Megan's Law sex offender registration. "There's no doubt about it."

What Yavorski did was "deplorable," Giordano said. "If I didn't make that clear on the record the first time, I'll make it clear this time."

In pushing for a lesser sentence, Wilhelm highlighted that there was only one incident and positive psychological reports that said Yavorski is good candidate for community supervision.

Assistant District Attorney James Augustine said the sentence, if anything, should be higher, and he asked Giordano to add more jail time.

< The question is this, if the appropriate sentence for his crime is 2 years, why does the government allow for his entire livelihood to be ruined for the rest of his life? And why don't they work to prevent all the collatoral damage that will result from making someone have such trouble being an upstanding citizen in the future as he will have? They are creating far more trouble than they are preventing. >