Posted by: "Dee" lucidreeme
Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:06 am (PST)


http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-
sikat23feb23,1,2290629.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

>From the Los Angeles Times
Woman sobs out apology in child molestation case
Prosecution is seeking a 60-year term when she is sentenced March 6.
By Christine Hanley
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

February 23, 2008

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Sheila Marie Sikat turned to
search the sea of faces in a crowded Santa Ana courtroom Friday.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to a sister, locking eyes as they both
wept.

Sikat's soft-spoken apology set the tone for a highly emotional
hearing to determine how much time she should spend in prison for
repeatedly molesting a 4-year-old niece with her husband in a case
that unfolded after a trunk full of homemade child porn movies were
discovered in the couple's home.

In an unexpected twist, Sikat's sister was among several family
members who asked the judge to show mercy, while jurors from Sikat's
trial -- at the request of prosecutors -- agreed to give the little
girl a voice because no one else would.

"I still see it at night when I go to bed," said Randy Styner,
recalling one moment in a four-hour videotape that shows the girl
waking up after being attacked by Sikat's husband. "I saw her get up
and start to scream. . . . I saw someone so alone. . . . Sheila had
the opportunity to defend that child. She didn't."

At the end of the hearing, Sikat agreed, taking responsibility for
her role and saying she deserved to pay the consequences.

Judge Gary S. Paer indicated at the outset of the proceedings that he
believed the crimes deserved serious punishment but put off a final
decision until March 6. Sikat's husband, David S. Hwang, is serving
50 years to life after pleading guilty in October 2006. Prosecutors
are advocating a 60-year term for Sikat.

Sikat and Hwang were arrested in 2003 after a housekeeper discovered
some of the videotapes while the Rancho Santa Margarita couple were
honeymooning. Investigators found a locked wooden trunk they dubbed
a "little chest of horrors" in the couple's bedroom closet; it
contained 212 videotapes.

The tapes show Hwang molesting girls, some with Sikat in Orange
County, others in earlier years with a former girlfriend. Sikat's
niece is seen in four of the tapes. She was molested five times at
the couple's home in early 2001, producing the four-hour tape that
became the primary piece of evidence against the couple.

During Sikat's three-week trial late last year, the defense argued
that Hwang drugged his wife without her knowledge before the abuse
took place.

Prosecutors said the couple told the girl's parents they wanted to
baby-sit to practice their parenting skills. Once in their custody,
the girl was given a glass of dark-colored "medicine" that knocked
her unconscious.

Sikat never directly touched her niece, but was touching Hwang while
he molested the girl, prosecutors said. She also helped to drug the
girl, they said.

On Friday, Styner and three fellow jurors -- two women and another
man -- said they did not consider Sikat a monster, but faulted her
for not doing anything to protect her niece from such horrible acts.
All of them talked about how haunted they are by the tape.

One of the jurors said she was so traumatized that she cannot give
her own 11-month-old daughter a bath or change her diaper. Another
questioned what more might have happened, not only to the niece but
other children, had a tipster not alerted authorities.

Among Sikat's biggest supporters was the victim's mother.

She said she was angry at first but has since forgiven Sikat, whom
she described as a good person who was manipulated by Hwang. She said
her daughter is doing fine and doesn't remember the ordeal.

The judge interrupted, asking the sister if she had seen the video.

When she said she had not and didn't want to, Paer told her he
thought she was in denial and "trying to avoid reality." He reminded
her that Sikat was not a bystander, but in the room when bad things
happened.

He guaranteed that the sister would have a much different view if she
ever found the courage to watch the tape.

"I'd bet money on it," he said. "You see that tape, and that would be
the last time you spoke to her."

Another sister followed, echoing what other family members said.

Deputy Dist Atty. Beth Carmichael said she was shocked that the
defense let the second sister speak in court because investigators
had seen tapes of her when she was younger, being victimized by Sikat
and Hwang.

Sikat, who wept throughout the hourlong hearing, was shaking with
sobs as she apologized to just about everyone involved in the case.
She took complete responsibility for her role and told her family she
did not deserve their support and kind words, nor mercy from the
judge.

"I'm not going to make excuses. I failed to protect my niece and a
lot of people," she said. "I hurt everybody . . . . "I'm taking full
responsibility. . . . I do deserve to go to prison because I failed
to protect my niece. . . . I'm not a victim. I had my choices," she
said. "I was weak."

christine.hanley@...


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