Pennsylvania Woman Gets Prison in Child Sex Case - Updated

(York County, Pennsylvania) Yesterday, Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas H. Kelley sentenced 39-year-old Patricia Gamber to serve 9 to 23 months in the York County Prison.

Gamber did not speak in court Monday but her attorney, Katrina Luedtke, said her client is "extremely sorry for what happened." Following her arrest, Gamber had told police she was going through a divorce and "didn't know what she was doing," according to court documents.

Luedtke told Kelley that Gamber had sought psychiatric treatment after her arrest "and is doing well."

Gamber, of Westminster, pleaded guilty twice to the charges. In August, Kelley rejected her negotiated plea agreement which called for three to six months in county prison.

She earlier was rejected for acceptance into Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, a probationary program, by District Attorney Stan Rebert.

Kelley accepted her second guilty plea, which carried only an agreement that she would receive a county sentence rather than a state prison term, in January.

In addition to her prison term, Gamber was also fined $100. In an unusual concession, Judge Kelley said Gamber would be allowed work release privileges while in prison. Typically, individuals convicted of sex offenses are not granted work release.



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Pennsylvania Woman Guilty in Child Sex Case
[Previous 1/9/09 post]
(York County, Pennsylvania) in December 2007, a Maryland woman, Patricia J. Gamber, was caught in flagrante delicto having sex with a 15-year-old boy at 2AM in the morning.

Police found the two without clothes in the rear hatch area of Gamber's Jeep. Gamber reportedly admitted to the sex. She was charged with statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with a minor and trespassing.

Reportedly, Gamber told police that she was going through a divorce and "didn't know what she was doing."

In August 2008, Gamber pleaded guilty in accordance with an agreement with the prosecution which would have capped her jail sentence at three months. Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas H. Kelley rejected the plea deal.

Yesterday, 39-year-old Patricia Gamber returned to court and entered a guilty plea to statutory sexual assault, indecent assault on a person under 16, corruption of minors and defiant trespass. The agreement limits her sentence to the statutory maximum -- 10 years in the state prison.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 23.