DAMN....where were these women when I was a tiny tot???
Sitter Who Disrobed Found Guilty Of Lesser Charge
By DAVID SOMMER dsommer@tampatrib.com
Published: Feb 3, 2005
CLEARWATER - A 23-year-old woman's anguished admission that she stripped off her clothes to satisfy a 4-year-old's curiosity, but did so without erotic intent, apparently persuaded jurors not to find her guilty of a sex crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Instead, a four-man, two- woman panel found Sarah Slicker guilty of lewd and lascivious exhibition in front of a child, a less serious crime that could spare the St. Petersburg woman a prison term.
Slicker will be spending time behind bars, however.
Circuit Judge Brandt Downey ordered her jailed pending a Feb. 25 sentencing hearing at which he will decide whether Slicker's crime qualifies for a mandatory 30-month prison term.
If it does not, the judge is free to chose anything from time served up to 15 years.
Testifying in her own defense, Slicker told jurors that the stress of working as a nanny for 60 or more hours a week, caring for children from three different families, caused a lapse in judgment that led her to disrobe at the request of a 4-year-old boy.
``I was exhausted, mentally and physically,'' Slicker said, appearing to stifle a sob.
``I'm not trying to excuse what happened,'' she said. ``I know I shouldn't have been naked on the couch. I'm not disputing that ... I knew afterward it was a terrible thing to have done.''
The pair had been watching a James Bond movie that Slicker said the boy's father had approved of but that she found inappropriate, she told the jury. She said she disrobed at the boy's command.
``Everything was a struggle with him,'' she said. ``I didn't say anything. I just did it.''