Marine Park Man Confesses To Sexual Abuse Of Two Kids, Sentenced To 20 Years

Marine Park resident Michael Sabo, 38, was sentenced to 20 years-to-life, after admitting to sexually abusing two children over the course of several years.

The plea deal came just as Sabo was to go to trial, and it spared the two kids the painful ordeal of having to relive the experience through testimony on the stand.

Here’s the Daily News’ take:

He could have faced an “almost incalculable” sentence of up to hundreds of years if convicted by a jury for nine sex abuse and 120 child pornography charges, Justice Vincent Del Giudice told him.

The father of four, who used to work as a registered nurse, then finally copped.

He pleaded guilty to molesting a 5-year-old boy for five years starting in 2001 and to repeatedly forcing a little girl to engage in sex acts when she was between the ages 6 and 9.

“I had her perform oral sex on me,” Sabo, speaking almost inaudibly and leaning on the defense table, told the judge.

“One can argue that he is a victim himself,” said defense lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz, arguing that Sabo was likely a victim of sex abuse as a child.

The sordid case came to light a number of years ago, when someone saw a picture of the boy victim – clothed but tied up – on a Russian porn site and shared it with a rabbi. It took the rabbi two years to locate the child’s family and they eventually identified the second victim, a source said.

In the photo, Sabo’s hand is visible as well as the background of his Marine Park home. A search warrant unearthed some 120 child pornography images, about half of them videos.

Sabo lived on Burnett Street, one block from two different yeshivas. When the story first broke and Sabo was released on bail, local Jewish publications expressed the community’s outrage. They also noted that Sabo had attended a Jewish school made infamous by the deeds of a pedophile teacher. They wrote:

Sabo attended Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn. The school was made infamous when its owner, Lipa Margulies, deflected investigations of a longtime teacher, Yehuda Kolko, who last yearpleaded guilty to multiple counts of child endangerment and who is suspected of widespread sexual abuse. Sabo said he could not recall if he had been a victim of sexual abuse by Kolko.

“My therapist says it’s repressed, right now, but I don’t remember,” said Sabo.