KINGSTON – A Kingston man convicted of sexual assault was sentenced Dec. 6 to four and a half years in prison.
The Ulster County District Attorney’s Office said the defendant, Carlos Fernando Pinola Pop, 41, of Kingston, was found guilty of sexual abuse in the first degree, a misdemeanor, in a trial before Sullivan County Court Judge James Farrell visited in a trial that concluded in August. 15.
In addition to the prison sentence, Pop is also registered as a sex offender.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, on September 25, 2023, Pop subjected a 7-year-old girl to sexual contact by placing his hands and penis on her vagina.
The girl told her mother, who informed a third party member of the community. The third party notified Kingston Police and Pop was arrested on October 13, 2023.
Holiday concert: Christmas with The New York Tenors to The Paramount Theatre, Middletown
The district attorney’s office said Pop admitted to the sexual contact with Kingston police and later pleaded guilty in open court.
During a subsequent interview with the Ulster County Probation Department, Pop took no responsibility for his actions and stated that he only touched the victim accidentally.
The district attorney’s office said Pop’s false statement to the probation department led the court to impose a longer sentence than originally agreed upon.
“Crimes against children are the most heinous crimes committed in Ulster County,” Special Victims Bureau Chief Jenna Hastings, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement released by the District Attorney’s Office. “It takes a lot of courage for anyone to report sex crimes, let alone a seven-year-old girl. I commend her courage and I’m glad our office was able to get her the justice she deserves.”
Pop’s attorney, Richard Berube of the Ulster County Public Defender’s office, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com.
This article originally appeared in Times Herald-Record: Kingston man convicted of child sex abuse, sentenced to prison
