Sex offender gets 3 life terms
April 26, 2007
Molly Tippen
Staff Writer
Dashing the hopes of investigators who thought they might finally be able to solve the Oakland County Child Killer case, Ted Lamborgine turned down a deal that would have put him in jail for 15 years, and instead was sentenced to three life terms for molesting several children more than 30 years ago.
At least one of the victims Lamborgine was convicted of molesting in the 1970s is from Romulus.
Lamborgine, 66 and of Parma, Ohio, rejected a deal offered by Wayne County Prosecutors and refused to talk about the murders of four Oakland County children in the mid-1970s. He accepted responsibility for about 15 counts of first and second degree criminal sexual conduct, said Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Moran.
This was a first in my career, he said. The law enforcement task of finding all of these victims was formidable, especially after all of these years.
Lamborgine and a co-defendant, Richard Lawson, were implicated in an investigation into a child sex ring that operated in the Cass Corridor in Detroit in the 1970s. During the investigation, it was revealed that children were taken to a motel on Eureka Road in Romulus, where they were molested.
During sentencing, Lamborgine said the boys were paid for sex acts. Moran said the fact that Lamborgine tried to skirt responsibility for the molestation is infuriating.
He said that it was paid for, and he tried to justify his behavior on that basis, said Moran.
But were talking about kids as young as 9 years old, and they can never legally consent to sex.Moran said that a victim from Romulus was located during the investigation, but that he did not testify during court proceedings.
Richard Lawson, who along with Lamborgine also faced more than 15 counts of criminal sexual conduct, also appeared at Circuit Court for a hearing last week.Moran said Lawson is also facing charges that stem from Romulus.
Lawson is already convicted of killing his former employer in 1989 and is serving a life sentence for that crime.Technically, Lamborgine can be paroled after serving 15 years in prison, but Moran said the likelihood of his release is remote.
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