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Selling Girl For Sex
A man charged with having sex with a 12-year-old girl in exchange for a Norwich woman's back rent hijacked a busload of people headed to Atlantic City's casinos in 1991.
Dean Sacco, 49, served the mandatory minimum sentence of nine years of a 21-year sentence in New Jersey on kidnapping, robbery and weapons possession convictions for hijacking a Greyhound bus, according to New Jersey Department of Corrections records.
Now Sacco is facing federal charges in Binghamton of buying a child, as well as receiving and producing child pornography, and crossing state lines to have sex with a minor, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric.
The buying charge alone carries a possible life sentence on conviction, Lovric said.
Sacco and a co-defendant, Linda O'Connor, 46, who is charged with selling a child, and child pornography charges, have a bail hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Binghamton.
A spokesman for the New Jersey State Police said Wednesday the department's computerized records don't go back to 1991, when Sacco hijacked the bus. But published news accounts of the crime say Sacco was on the bus Aug. 4, 1991, wearing a wig when he pulled a bandanna over his face, stood up with a .38-caliber handgun and demanded cash and identification from passengers.
When Sacco approached the bus driver, the 29-year-old Greyhound employee distracted Sacco and then hit the brakes, throwing Sacco into the stairwell of the vehicle, according to accounts in The New York Times.
The driver then dove on Sacco, and the two spilled out onto the Garden State Parkway while a passenger took over the wheel of the vehicle, stopping the bus. Then, the passenger joined the melee outside the bus and he and the driver wrestled the weapon away from Sacco, the newspaper said.
Sacco fled, and the bus driver shot him in the abdomen with Sacco's gun, the newspaper reported. Sacco jumped over a guide rail and fell 30 feet onto Route 22, breaking his leg, the newspaper account said. He survived his injuries, went to prison in 1992, and was released on parole in 2001, New Jersey records show. The bus driver was not charged.
According to New Jersey records, Sacco's first name is "Dino." But one of Sacco's aliases is "Dean," New Jersey records show.
Sacco lived under the radar until February 2007, when his alleged victim told a teacher at her school about the sex. The teacher notified local police, who began an investigation in early March and filed felony rape and other state charges. The Press & Sun-Bulletin is not identifying the investigating police agency to help protect the girl's identity. The newspaper does not identify alleged victims of sex crimes.
Sacco's trial on the state charges, due to start this week, has been postponed.
A separate FBI investigation claims that O'Connor, who moved into Sacco's apartment in August 2006, fell behind on her rent payments to him. Sacco lived in Jersey City, N.J., during the week and spent weekends at his local property, court documents said.
In exchange for rent money, O'Connor procured a then-12-year-old girl for Sacco, who had sex with the child at least five times between 2006 and 2007, the girl told FBI agents, according to court documents. The girl also said Sacco and O'Connor photographed her during sex.
The girl, now 14, also told investigators that O'Connor sold her for sex to two different strangers at a Johnson City hotel in late 2006. Afterward, O'Connor took the girl Christmas shopping with the money she received, the girl told police.
O'Connor is also facing a life sentence if convicted of the federal selling charge.
Dean Sacco, 49, served the mandatory minimum sentence of nine years of a 21-year sentence in New Jersey on kidnapping, robbery and weapons possession convictions for hijacking a Greyhound bus, according to New Jersey Department of Corrections records.
Now Sacco is facing federal charges in Binghamton of buying a child, as well as receiving and producing child pornography, and crossing state lines to have sex with a minor, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric.
The buying charge alone carries a possible life sentence on conviction, Lovric said.
Sacco and a co-defendant, Linda O'Connor, 46, who is charged with selling a child, and child pornography charges, have a bail hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Binghamton.
A spokesman for the New Jersey State Police said Wednesday the department's computerized records don't go back to 1991, when Sacco hijacked the bus. But published news accounts of the crime say Sacco was on the bus Aug. 4, 1991, wearing a wig when he pulled a bandanna over his face, stood up with a .38-caliber handgun and demanded cash and identification from passengers.
When Sacco approached the bus driver, the 29-year-old Greyhound employee distracted Sacco and then hit the brakes, throwing Sacco into the stairwell of the vehicle, according to accounts in The New York Times.
The driver then dove on Sacco, and the two spilled out onto the Garden State Parkway while a passenger took over the wheel of the vehicle, stopping the bus. Then, the passenger joined the melee outside the bus and he and the driver wrestled the weapon away from Sacco, the newspaper said.
Sacco fled, and the bus driver shot him in the abdomen with Sacco's gun, the newspaper reported. Sacco jumped over a guide rail and fell 30 feet onto Route 22, breaking his leg, the newspaper account said. He survived his injuries, went to prison in 1992, and was released on parole in 2001, New Jersey records show. The bus driver was not charged.
According to New Jersey records, Sacco's first name is "Dino." But one of Sacco's aliases is "Dean," New Jersey records show.
Sacco lived under the radar until February 2007, when his alleged victim told a teacher at her school about the sex. The teacher notified local police, who began an investigation in early March and filed felony rape and other state charges. The Press & Sun-Bulletin is not identifying the investigating police agency to help protect the girl's identity. The newspaper does not identify alleged victims of sex crimes.
Sacco's trial on the state charges, due to start this week, has been postponed.
A separate FBI investigation claims that O'Connor, who moved into Sacco's apartment in August 2006, fell behind on her rent payments to him. Sacco lived in Jersey City, N.J., during the week and spent weekends at his local property, court documents said.
In exchange for rent money, O'Connor procured a then-12-year-old girl for Sacco, who had sex with the child at least five times between 2006 and 2007, the girl told FBI agents, according to court documents. The girl also said Sacco and O'Connor photographed her during sex.
The girl, now 14, also told investigators that O'Connor sold her for sex to two different strangers at a Johnson City hotel in late 2006. Afterward, O'Connor took the girl Christmas shopping with the money she received, the girl told police.
O'Connor is also facing a life sentence if convicted of the federal selling charge.