Crime & Safety

Brain Injury Center Counselor Sentenced For Sexually Abusing Disabled Residents

The man threatened the residents in order to keep them silent, authorities said.

KINGSTON, NY — Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced Friday the sentencing of a former counselor at the Northeast Center for Rehabilitation and Traumatic Brain Injury in Lake Katrine, after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing six residents of Northeast Center between July 2014 and Feb. 2015. Jacky Stanley, 51, of Kingston, was sentenced Friday by Ulster County Court Judge Donald A. Williams to 46 years in prison and 20 years post-release supervision.

Stanley has remained in jail since his arrest in August 2016 and will immediately begin his state prison sentence. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

“These were heinous acts of abuse targeting residents already suffering from traumatic, life-changing injuries,” Schneiderman said. “My office recommended a significant sentence based on the defendant’s proven pattern of sexual abuse. We applaud the bravery of the victims who came forward to bring the defendant to justice.”

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Stanley’s victims were residents who were admitted to Northeast Center for rehabilitation after sustaining traumatic brain injuries. Stanley’s role, as a unit counselor, was to aid new residents in acclimating to the facility and its programs.

Instead, Schneiderman said, Stanley used his position, and the trust placed in him by his residents, to gain access to the victims to sexually abuse them within days, even hours, of their arrival. The evidence at trial revealed that Stanley threatened one of the victims he abused and the victim’s family on multiple occasions to keep the victim silent.

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The evidence at trial also showed that one of Stanley’s other handicapped victims woke from his sleep to find Stanley sexually abusing him.

Stanley used not only the victims’ physical and mental disabilities but also his apparent authority and threats of harm to prey upon his six victims and ensure their silence.

It was only after one of the victims came forward that Stanley’s pattern of abuse emerged.

Stanley was convicted, after a one-week trial, of 24 counts related to his sexual abuse of six victims. These convictions include one count of first-degree criminal sexual act, a class B violent felony, and seven counts of first-degree sexual abuse, a class D violent felony.

The Attorney General thanked the Town of Ulster Police Department, particularly Detectives William Moylan and Joshua Normann, for their work on the investigation. The Attorney General also thanked the Northeast Center for its cooperation throughout the investigation and trial.

Image via Shutterstock.

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