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85 years for 'parent's nightmare'

A judge gives a maximum sentence in a pedophile case after watching the man's video tribute to a victim.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published April 6, 2007

TAMPA - Steven Schurgard, who once called himself "a full-fledged pedophile" on his Web site, told a judge Thursday that he was sorry for owning child pornography and filming a young man engaged in a sex act.

But then a prosecutor played a video montage produced by the Temple Terrace man. Set to Lionel Richie's Still in Love, it showed both clothed and shirtless pictures of a tow-headed boy authorities believe was one of Schurgard's victims.

As the wistful lyrics piped through the courtroom, the man in handcuffs and an orange jail jumpsuit lip-synched every word.

No one else will ever do. I'm still in love with you.

Circuit Judge Chet Tharpe cracked his knuckles, glowering at the first-time offender who faced as few as four years in prison.

If Schurgard's past had not sealed a stiff sentence, his courtroom performance had. The judge ordered an 85-year prison term, the maximum allowed in the case.

"You are every parent's worst nightmare," Tharpe said. "You are one nightmare that I'm going to put to rest today."

Schurgard, 38, revealed his secret life in 2002.

His father got an injunction in Arizona after Schurgard threatened to kill him, Assistant State Attorney Kimberly Hindman said.

When Temple Terrace police went to serve Schurgard, the man who test drove cars for work and lived with his mother answered the door with a gun tucked in the waist of his pants.

He threatened police and told them he had child pornography on his computer.

Police returned with a search warrant and seized Schurgard's computer and a cache of video and cassette tapes.

Computer experts hired by the state uncovered enough evidence from Schurgard's encrypted files to charge him with 616 counts of possessing child pornography. In February, after five years of solitary confinement in jail awaiting trial, he pleaded guilty to five counts of possession, three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and one count of soliciting lewd and lascivious conduct by a child under 18.

The catch: Schurgard's open plea left the length of his sentence up to the judge.

Tharpe watched a video of a 13-year-old boy whom Schurgard plied with video games, drugs and alcohol, then filmed performing sexual acts. He saw a sampling of the obscene images from the man's computer.

Hindman also showed Tharpe evidence that would not have been allowed at trial but could be used by the judge to determine character. One video, set to the music from Jaws, showed Schurgard peeking through his blinds at a boy playing outside.

Another captured him giggling guiltily as he flipped through pictures of naked boys and showed off literature from the North American Man/Boy Love Association, of which he was a member, Hindman said.

Anthony Candela, an assistant public defender, argued that the 13-year-old had been a willing participant. He described NAMBLA as both a political organization and a support group for pedophiles.

"My client's political views are not at issue here," said Candela, before adding that the organization was based on "a sick concept."

Hindman said the boy was as willing a participant as the Jews were at Auschwitz. Schurgard, too, had destroyed lives.

"He is a menace," she said. "He is dangerous. He is the very epitome of what parents lay in bed at night worrying about."

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 6, 2007, 00:14:07]