Opinion ID: 2294072
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Underlying Criminal Offenses

Text: This case ultimately stems from appellant's commission of four first-degree sexual assaults against three victims (one victim having been the object of two such assaults) in the Spring of 1998. [3] The first assault, which occurred on April 7, 1998, involved one act of forcible or coerced vaginal intercourse. In her statement to the police, the nineteen-year-old victim related how she had voluntarily entered Mr. Germane's truck on the evening of the assault. After he began driving her to an unknown location, she asked to leave the vehicle, whereupon appellant withdrew a folding knife and threatened her. He then drove her to a secluded location in East Providence, where he sexually assaulted her. The second assault, which occurred about a week later, on April 15, 1998, also involved one act of forcible or coerced vaginal intercourse. The forty-eight-year-old victim was cognitively impaired as the result of a childhood injury. [4] In a statement to police, she recounted being forcibly abducted by Mr. Germane, driven to a cemetery in Cranston, and then sexually assaulted. She mentioned being struck by appellant, but she gave the police no indication that a weapon was used during the assault. The final two assaults, which occurred on May 19, 1998 (and which were committed against a single victim), involved one act of forcible or coerced fellatio and one count of forcible or coerced anal intercourse. [5] The twenty-four-year-old victim acknowledged to the police that she was a prostitute and that she had voluntarily entered Mr. Germane's truck on the evening of the assault. However, she was then forced by appellant to perform an oral sexual act on him in the truck, driven to a secluded location in East Providence, and again assaulted in the woods. She mentioned that she saw a knife on appellant's belt and feared that he might use it against her, but she did not allege that he actually threatened her with the knife. In view of what the prosecutor, at the time of the plea and sentencing proceeding in January of 2000, would describe as certain background information and other difficulties with some of the victims, [6] the state apparently concluded that a plea agreement was preferable to proceeding to trial with respect to the above-summarized offenses. Accordingly, in exchange for a plea of nolo contendere by Mr. Germane, the state offered to recommend a sentence of twenty years at the Adult Correctional Institutions, six months to serve, nineteen and one-half months suspended, with probation. Prior to the plea and sentencing, the magistrate [7] presiding over the case received two psychiatric assessments of Mr. Germane that had been performed by experts in the field of psychological and sexual evaluation viz., Dr. Theoharis K. Seghorn and Dr. John P. Wincze. Doctor Seghorn held five extended evaluation sessions with appellant (each involving two to three hours of interviews and testing), while Dr. Wincze held six sessions with appellant (said sessions also involving testing of Mr. Germane and interviews with Mr. Germane and his ex-wife). The two assessments were consistent with one another as to most significant matters; they generally concluded that Mr. Germane was a man of below average intelligence and that he was not aroused by force or aggression or sadism   . They further concluded that he is not a sexual predator, but that he would nonetheless benefit from continued psychological treatment or psychotherapy for the purpose of improving his emotional self-regulation and social skills. Both doctors independently determined that, in their professional opinion, Mr. Germane was at a low risk of re-offense. On January 6, 2000, appellant pled nolo contendere to four counts of first-degree sexual assault. At that proceeding, appellant admitted that, had the cases proceeded to trial, the state could have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that, over the course of approximately two months, he had committed four acts of sexual assault against three women by the use of force or coercion. The Superior Court imposed the agreed-upon sentence; Mr. Germane was given credit for the six months that he had already served prior to the plea; and he was thereupon released. Several years later, at the time of the review by the Superior Court of the board of review's classification, the magistrate who conducted that review reflected that, although he did not vividly recall his thinking at the time of sentencing, he believed that he had agreed to the lenient sentence because [Mr. Germane is] not a danger to society.