Forensicwx
Final Roll Call 4153. STLCO 10-42 10/13 @ 1519
http://www.nj.com/passaic-county/in...s_blood_at_his.html#incart_river_mobile_indexA convicted sex offender from New York was tackled and restrained in a federal courtroom Monday during his sentencing hearing after he spat blood toward a teen-aged victim who had just concluded a statement urging the judge to give him a life sentence.
U.S. District Judge Esther Salas later did give Clifford Wares, 43, of Warwick, N.Y., a life sentence, saying his behavior showed he was a risk to society.
"Mr. Wares, you, sir, are every parent's worst nightmare come to life," Salas said.
The victim, who was 13 in 2011 when she met Wares online, said she was "vulnerable for positive attention" when he contacted her online. Wares soon convinced the victim to send nude pictures of herself, she said.
Wares then became enraged when she refused to engage in bestiality, and contacted her network of online friends to humiliate her and destroy her reputation, she said.
As she left front of the courtroom, Wares, who was biting on his cheek, spat and was quickly subdued. Salas called a recess. It was the second time in the case that Wares spat blood in the courtroom, Salas said.
When court resumed, Wares observed the proceedings via closed-circuit camera in a holding cell, wearing a clear mask. Even under those circumstances, Wares was defiant, promising vengeance.
"It's not hard to get out, and when I do, oh, there's going to be problems," he said.
Wares also pointed a middle finger at the camera after he completed his statement.
Such behavior is what led Salas to conclude that Wares, who has a criminal history of online stalking and making threats, should not be allowed back into society.
"He is," she said, "probably pure evil."
Wares was convicted May 17 in a jury trial of six counts including interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct, production of child pornography, online enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and making interstate extortionate threats.
Besides the victim who spoke Monday in the courtroom, another teenager testified that he befriended her, picked her up and forced her to perform oral sex on him in a state park. He also created fake online profiles to threaten her, according to testimony and a criminal complaint. He bought her a dog, told her he wanted her to have sex with it, and when she refused, he threatened to kill it and her, Salas said.
In addition, Salas read from a pre-sentence report that listed five arrests and convictions on aggravated harassment, stalking and attempted coercion of women and girls.
The judge also found that Wares' attempted to obstruct justice by allegedly sending computer and handwritten letters to the two girls and the families before the trial, threatening them if they didn't refute the charges. After he was convicted, he allegedly sent more letters, saying he would send ex-convicts or members of the Latin Kings gang to rape and kill them and their family members, FBI Special Agent Laura Robinson testified Monday.
Robinson said DNA testing and fingerprint analysis on the letters are still in progress.
Defense lawyer Thomas Ambrosio said the threats couldn't be believed, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Walsman said the families were terrified.
Speaking from the holding cell, Wares said the trial was "ridiculous," and that he was "innocent from day one."
"We all know that that should have been a mistrial," he said.
Wares claimed someone had hijacked his identity, but that "no one seems to care."
He also disparaged the victims and promised to appeal, saying, "This is not over with."
That sort of talk, Salas said, led her to believe that Wares had no redeeming qualities to offset a harsh sentence.
The judge said Wares had received a "slap on the wrist" for his previous offenses and said society didn't need to wait for him to kill someone before he was imprisoned for life. She recommended to the Bureau of Prisons that Wares be incarcerated in a "supermax" prison.