BIG CRIME..LITTLE TIME FROM A LIBERAL JUDGE

Not even the sickening sight of a child molester professing his love
for one of his tormented victims was enough to undo a sweetheart plea
deal.

So, despite the pleas of the victim and prosecutors, acting
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Martin Murphy stuck to the two-year
sentence he’d offered a serial pedophile.

Andrew Goodman pleaded guilty last month to 48 felonies — “even more than Jerry Sandusky,” as his victim pointed out.

And prosecutors were prepared to seek a seven-year sentence on each count.

But
Murphy last month dangled the bare minimum in front of Goodman — who
quickly snatched what even his own lawyer called “an amazing deal.”

Steven Hirsch

NYS Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman

With time already served, Goodman could be back on the street by September.

In
court yesterday, the 27-year-old predator declared an undying love for
his victim, who — along with his brother — was molested for “a torturous
four years.”

“Every second of every day, all that I think about
is [the victim],” Goodman declared. Then he turned to the youth, now 17,
and said: “I love you.”

Talk about inappropriate — even Murphy seemed to understand that.

“Your statement that you made today was ill-advised, to say the least,” he said.

But the judge wasn’t sufficiently moved to undo the damage he’d inflicted.

Not
even after the victim pleaded with Murphy to show no mercy for this
“devil disguised as a human” — adding that “no doubt [Goodman] will try
to do the same thing to other children once he gets out.”

Goodman’s lawyer, of course, couldn’t be more thrilled. His client is
“very happy to put this behind him . . . and hopefully get on with his
life.”

Too bad the victims can’t say the same.

What was this judge thinking?

Murphy wouldn’t say.

The
jurist has a history of dispensing bizarrely lenient sentences; perhaps
not coincidentally, he spent 20 years with the Legal Aid Society and
was named to the Supreme Court by current state Chief Judge Jonathan
Lippman.

That, clearly, was a mistake on Lippman’s part — one that he can easily rectify by:

* Using his authority as New York’s top supervising judge to require Murphy to explain himself.

* And then transferring him permanently to noncriminal duties. Let him shuffle papers in Civil Court.

Not a perfect solution, but at least he won’t be turning any pedophiles loose.

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