Ex-cop gets 8-23 months in case of morals corruption

A judge yesterday sentenced a former Philadelphia police officer - convicted of unlawful contact and of corrupting the morals of a 14-year-old girl - to eight to 23 months in county jail.

Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley said that ex-Officer Thomas Gitto, 41, could serve his prison sentence on weekends. He was ordered to turn himself in today.

Gitto, who worked in the Narcotics Field Unit, was accused of having sex with the girl in 2004. The teen is a younger sister of Gitto's then-live-in girlfriend, who is now his fiancee.

After the sentencing, asked if he had sex with the teen, Gitto proclaimed: "Absolutely not."

A jury in June acquitted Gitto of charges of statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault. As such, it appeared to agree that Gitto did not have sexual contact with the girl, or that it found that prosecutors did not prove he did so beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jurors, however, convicted Gitto of a felony charge of unlawful contact with a minor - in that he communicated with her for an illicit purpose - and a misdemeanor charge of corrupting her morals.

The commonwealth contended that in 2004, when the girl was 14, she and Gitto had consensual sex three times and that there was sexual touching about four other times, Assistant District Attorney Bill Davis said after the hearing.

At trial, the teen testified to having sex with Gitto. The state also introduced evidence of numerous calls between the two, and of e-mail contact between them.

After yesterday's sentencing, defense attorney Brian McLaughlin contended that the teen made up the sexual allegations to spite her older sister. He said the older sister had found the teen drinking alcohol and had ratted her out to their parents, and because of that, the younger sister retaliated with the allegations.

Davis disputed this contention.

McLaughlin also noted that the girl first claimed Gitto raped her, then said the relationship was consensual. He suggested that the jury did not find her credible.

In court yesterday, the girl, now 19, read an impact statement. Her hand shaking, she said she "started drinking alcohol as an escape" and tries "to forget" what happened. "I really blame myself for what happened. I have nightmares," she said.

Gitto, dressed in a black suit, took issue with some of the commonwealth's evidence in the case. "I could go on," he said. "I'm just asking for leniency. . . . I'm not sorry, your Honor. I did nothing wrong."

The judge said she believed there were some "very serious issues" here. She noted, for instance, a pre-sentence investigator's report that recommended Gitto get sex-offender treatment.

Davis, in asking for a county jail sentence, noted that Gitto, who was a police officer at the time of the alleged offenses, was someone people trusted.

McLaughlin asked for a probationary sentence.

The judge said she believed "incarceration is appropriate," in part, to send a message. She ordered the jail term to be followed by three years' probation and for Gitto to get sex-offender treatment. Gitto, who the defense said now owns an auto-body shop, also was ordered to continue working.

Gitto was fired by the Police Department in April 2007, after 14 years on the force. *