Newswire

'Gay' gets 20 years in federal prison without parole for kidnapping a 10-year-old boy

'Gay' Gets 20 Years In Prison

OCALA -- The 42-year-old convicted sex offender who abducted a Dunnellon Elementary School boy earlier this year apologized to a federal judge on Thursday and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

"I'm sorry everything happened the way it happened. I really am," said Frederick Fretz, before Senior U.S. District Judge Terrell Hodges. The judge sentenced him for the Jan. 18 kidnapping of 10-year-old Adam Kirkirt, who is now 11.

Fretz picked up the boy from school, as he usually did, but that day he fled north. Three days later, police found Adam near Emerson, Ga., about an hour north of Atlanta. Fretz was found two days after that.

"I think everyone has recognized this is a very serious event," Hodges said. "I believe the kidnapping of a minor child is sort of like a homicide or any serious crime someone can commit."

Fretz pleaded guilty in May. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Perez and Federal Public Defender Fletcher Peacock agreed that 20 years - the federal minimum for this kidnapping charge - is a proper sentence. By law, Fretz must serve at least 85 percent of the term.

The judge also sentenced him to five years of probation, including no contact with anyone under 18 and no Internet access. While in prison and afterward, Fretz must get mental health and sex-offender treatment.

However, Adam's mother, Dorraine Kirkirt, said she was disappointed by the sentence.

"I don't think it's enough. He's gonna get out and hurt another child," she said, crying, as she nervously smoked a cigarette outside of the Golden-Collum Memorial Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse. "They lied to me. They told me: 'We're the federal government. We don't make deals.'"

In 1991, Fretz was convicted of molesting a 10-year-old boy in Pennsylvania. He did not register as a sexual offender here.

In the beginning of this case, it was unclear whether or not Fretz would also be charged with sexual exploitation of a minor because of a statement made during an interview.

"The circumstances giving rise to the making of that statement were not reliable," Perez said. "In my legal analysis, I could not have brought a charge to the court."

Fretz looked like a different man at the hearing. He looked calm, and his short, badly dyed blonde hair was now longer and mousy brown.

Though his physical appearance has changed, Dorraine Kirkirt said she knows he hasn't.

"Sex offenders are never sorry. They're sorry they got caught," she said. She's grateful her son is all right.

"It could've ended worse. Everyday I think about it. I still can't sleep at night."


http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl
e?AID=/20050923/NEWS/209230344/1001/news01

Posted by Editor at September 23, 2005 11:13 AM