Even sentencing judge wants Camillus mom to spend some time in jail for abusing son

CAMILLUS, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Even the judge wants Susan Orendorf to spend time in jail.

“It is easy to understand why anyone familiar with some of these facts would want you to go to jail, and, quite frankly, I am one of those people,” Camillus Town Justice John Petosa read to Orendorf from prepared remarks.

For nearly two years, Orendorf has been facing allegations she abused her 11-year-old son. The original charges were based on claims she strangled the boy, handcuffed him to his bed, forced him to sleep on the floor, withheld food and forced him to urinate on himself. She was also accused of touching his genitals as punishment.

Others in the community came forward to NewsChannel 9 saying they witnessed some of the abuse at a restaurant and at the beach, but their calls to child protective services seemed ignored.

But as the investigation and prosecution dragged on, the case’s most crucial witness, the boy, became less credible, Orendorf’s defense attorney said in court.

Because prosecutors may not have been able to meet their burden of proving Orendorf guilty of the serious allegations, they agreed with the defense on a single charge of endangering the welfare of a child.

The judge explained his reason: “My fear is that if I went with a sentence of jail, your attorney would withdraw your plea and we would have a trial. I think that trial could be devastating to your child’s emotional well-being. Forcing him to recount this matter in front of six strangers would certainly be impactful to his emotional state, but being subject to cross-examination where it might be shown that not everything we’ve read in the newspaper is correct could make this situation even worse for him. So yes, I’m going to protect him from the trial process and the damage that it might do.”

The plea agreement came with no time in jail, but two years of supervised probation and not seeing the victim for five years, until he is 18 years old.

The judge added his own twist: an extra, third year of probation.

Orendorf didn’t comment when leaving the courthouse.

Onondaga County’s Department of Children and Family Services has made procedural changes to avoid similar cases from going unnoticed.

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