Posted by R. Rococo, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Jun 23, 2006 at 6:49 pm

Well, mixed feelings here. At least Mr. G had the "guts" to cop a plea and not put the victim, her family, his family and the community through a trial and the trauma that goes along with it. On the other hand, does a maximum of 5 years (how much time will he really do?) seem like a reasonable punishment for what he did, or was the decade plus of living with the secret and worrying about it enough punishment? Did he really stop this behavior or are there more victims out there that will be stepping forward now that he is going to jail.

Posted by J.Johnson, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Aug 21, 2006 at 6:01 am

The alleged victim probably agreed with the DA on Giordano's sentence. Whether the victim feels that sentence length is fair or sufficient, we'll probably never know.

But you can make book that trying to prove a molestation case that old would have been very difficult. There was, in fact, another alleged victim. The charges stemming from her allegations were dropped because of technical reasons (they could pin down the month and year of his assaultings of her, but not specific dates).

Be that as it may, there is absolutely no 'mixed feelings here: Giordano is a scumbag. He's pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child, over whom he was an authority figure. That's about as sleazy and disgusting as it gets.

I feel badly for the victim(s) and the people around Giordano he has duped and lied to. But for him, he's going to end up where child molesters should end up. He is going to go to prison.

I hope he is required to allocute as to his acts before sentencing. That way, we can all know what exactly he did and there is no denying later about what he did.