FREEHOLD (PRESS RELEASE) – A Deal resident will spend the rest of his life as a registered sex offender under parole supervision after admitting to having sexual contact with a child at various times over the course of about a decade, starting about 25 years ago, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced Wednesday.
He will not be serving any prison time.
Hal Sitt, 86, was sentenced late last month by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill O’Malley. He will also be made to serve five years of probation and pay slightly more than $134,000 in restitution to the victim.
An investigation by members of the Deal Police Department, the Ocean Township Police Department, and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Bureau revealed that at various times between about 1997 and 2008, while the victim was under the age of 18, Sitt touched her inappropriately and had her do the same to him at locations including his home in Deal and at a park in Ocean Township.
Sitt was arrested in April 2021 and earlier this year pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree Aggravated Criminal Sexual Contact.
The plea agreement was reached only following discussions with the victim.
“For many victims of sexual abuse, the passage of time does little to ease the life-altering damage that they suffered. We hope that the resolution of this case sends a clear message to perpetrators and victims alike: it doesn’t matter how long ago the abuse occurred, or what age the defendant is now – such monstrous crimes demand a reckoning,” Acting Prosecutor Linskey said. “We know that it cannot undo the terrible things done to the victim by this defendant in her youth, but we hope it offers some small measure of solace.”
This case was prosecuted by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Noah Heck. Sitt was represented by Mitchell Ansell, Esq., with an office in Ocean Township.