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LEFT OUT
NOT QUALIFIED, HE ABUSED AGAIN
In 2000, state psychologists said David Stotler, 30, was not dangerous
enough for the program despite two sex crimes against children.
His first arrest was in Palm Beach Gardens in 1994 after he fondled
a young girl while baby-sitting her. The girl told police that Stotler
kissed her and shoved his hands under her clothes while she played
Nintendo. He also molested her while they were at a community swimming
pool.
Stotler qualified for 22 months in prison under state sentencing
guidelines, but avoided jail time by pleading guilty to lewd assault
in exchange for eight years' probation and six months' house arrest.
Three years later, he violated his probation when he tried to force
a Palm Beach County boy to perform oral sex on him.
He was sentenced to two years in prison in November 1998.
Though he had two sex offenses on his record, the state determined
Stotler did not qualify for the treatment program two months before
he left prison in September 2000.
A month later, while baby-sitting a 5-year-old, he crept into the
bedroom where the boy lay sleeping, pulled back a blanket, slipped
off the boy's pajama bottoms and performed oral sex on the child
-- an act Stotler would repeat numerous time with the young boy
over the course of the next year.
But Stotler didn't stop with one victim.
Two more boys under the age of 12 suffered the same torture --
awakened to find the predator abusing them.
Stotler's crimes, which eventually led to a life sentence, were
discovered only after the 5-year-old began urinating and defecating
in his underpants to prevent the abuse.
By then, the boy's scars ran deep: insomnia, rage, uncontrollable
sobbing and a preoccupation with pain, dismemberment, gore and blood,
according to court records.
With tears running down his face, the boy's voice shook and cracked
as he spoke of the abuse suffered for nearly a year, court records
show.
''David touched me,'' he told his mother. ``Momma, don't let him
do it again.''
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