The amount of time Richard Falco Fisco Sr. spends behind bars in now in the hands of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

The 73-year-old former Myton man was sentenced last Monday to four terms of six-years-to-life behind bars for his sexual abuse of a young boy during the early 1990s. Eighth District Court Judge John R. Anderson ordered the prison sentences to run concurrently.

Fisco has maintained his innocence since his arrest in December 2006. He restated his position that he hadn't molested the victim, who is now 20, at last Monday's hearing.

“(He's) never, ever been a victim of mine in his life or my life,” a defiant Fisco said. “I don't believe any of the charges against me were proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Fisco was the subject of a wide-ranging 1999 sex abuse investigation by the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office that led to 12 criminal charges being filed against him. During that probe, Fisco provided detectives with a list of more than 20 victims, which he said was meant to help him “cleanse his soul.” He told Anderson that the victim in the present case was not on that list.

“I pray for (him) every day,” said Fisco, who called his past crimes “odious” and “hateful.” “I have no doubt he was abused, but it was not by me.”

The victim's mother told Anderson that the abuse her son suffered at Fisco's hands began when he was 6. It led her son to become addicted to drugs, alcohol, and pornography and cost their family thousands of dollars and immeasurable sorrow.

“I cannot event begin to tell to you the hell you've put us through,” the woman told Fisco.

She said her son lived in fear that Fisco would make good on threats to harm his family if he revealed the abuse. He contemplated suicide at age 11 and spent five years in state custody, his mother said.

She also blasted Fisco for using his position as a Boy Scout leader to gain “instant credibility” so he could take advantage of her family's trust.

“You destroyed relationships,” she said.

During a one-day trial in April, Fisco's victim testified he was sexually abused on multiple occasions beginning in 1994. He said that's when he began going to Fisco's home near Myton with his older brother to mow the lawn. He said on several occasions Fisco would take him into the house on the pretense of getting him a soda, and then show him pornography on his computer.

The man said the nature of the visits changed, and eventually he was being told to undress and pose naked while pictures were taken. Fisco also initiated sexual contact with him, the man testified.

Anderson ultimately found Fisco guilty of one count of aggravated sex abuse of a child and three counts of sodomy on a child. The judge dismissed the remaining 14 felony counts against Fisco because the state could not provide more specific information about the incidents of abuse alleged in those charges.

At last Monday's hearing, Duchesne County Attorney Stephen Foote said the Fisco has tried throughout the case to make it about himself.

“This case is not about Mr. Fisco,” Foote said, asking Anderson to impose four consecutive sentences of 15-year-to-life. “It's about a 6-year-old boy who wanted to be like his big brother. ... All the potential (the victim) ever had was taken, gone.”

Foote called the lesser prison sentence requested by the defense, and recommended by Adult Probation and Parole was “dead wrong.”

“I don't think there's any question that the aggravating circumstances far outweigh the mitigating circumstances here,” the prosecutor said. “The only safe place for (Fisco) is prison, for as long as he can be there.”

Anderson agreed with Foote's assessment of the circumstances surrounding the case, then handed down the shortest prison term allowed by state statute for the crimes Fisco was convicted of.

“If you feel you've been given a bum steer, your remedy is to file an appeal on the record,” Anderson told Fisco before the defendant was led out of the courtroom to a holding cell.