A Commack man has been acquitted of sexually abusing a 5-year-old autistic boy and his 7-year-old brother.
A Suffolk County jury cleared 33-year-old Marc Pipitone of several counts of first-degree sexual abuse, endangering the welfare of a child and second-degree harassment. He was convicted of misdemeanor aggravated harassment.
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Defense attorney Kevin Kearon says that charge is related to e-mails he sent the family and had nothing to do with the sex abuse allegations.
Suffolk County prosecutors argued Pipitone abused the boys while working as a home care aide. Kearon claimed a confession Pipitone gave to police was coerced after his April 10 arrest.
Pipitone had received his license to teach in 2005 and has worked as a substitute special education teacher in the Smithtown and Deer Park school districts and the Developmental Disabilities Institute, prosecutors said.
He faces up to a year in prison on the aggravated harassment conviction at his sentencing Dec. 11.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
