Accused sentenced in attack on officer

Prosecutors offer a deal to the female officer's ex-lover to spare her kids the trauma of a trial.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 9, 2000

LARGO -- A high-ranking female officer in a North Pinellas police department said Salvatore Lamattina sexually assaulted her at gunpoint earlier this year and threatened to kill her.

Prosecutors, saying she feared for her life, asked a judge to jail him on $300,000 bail. They charged Lamattina with felonies that would put him in prison for life if convicted.

Lamattina's lawyer said Pinellas prosecutors this week offered his client a deal too good to refuse.

On Monday, Lamattina pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors, trespassing and domestic violence, and was sentenced by a circuit judge to time served and one year's probation. Prosecutors agreed not to pursue sexual assault and burglary charges, which are both felonies punishable by life in prison.

Prosecutors say the victim in the case didn't want to see Lamattina go to prison and didn't want her children to be traumatized by a trial. So they negotiated a plea.

The St. Petersburg Times is not identifying the officer or her department because of the nature of the charges.

"I've been through a lot," the officer said in an interview on Friday. "It's been really rough. I felt it was in the best interest of me and my children to get it over with. ... It was just easier to do this."

The woman denied she ever told prosecutors she didn't want Lamattina to go to prison, saying her decision was based strictly on family concerns.

Lamattina, 41, of 4391 34th Ave. N in St. Petersburg, who was jailed 10 days before he was able to raise bail, could not be reached for comment.

"My client has always maintained his innocence throughout all of this," said Bruce Denson, Lamattina's attorney. "But with the potential consequences out there, he didn't have a choice but to accept this offer."

"I believe we were prepared to go to trial," said prosecutor Bob Lewis. "But she really didn't want to see her kids have to go through a trial."

The officer had acknowledged that she and Lamattina, who is married, had an affair which she initiated before she decided to break it off.

Early one morning in September, the officer said, Lamattina showed up unexpectedly at her home. At the time, she was talking to a male friend who had stopped by to see her before work, the officer said.

Lamattina, she said, accused the pair of having an affair. At one point, she said, Lamattina held a semiautomatic handgun behind the man's head. She said she told her friend to leave to defuse the situation. The man left.

Lamattina, she said, then pushed her onto the bed and sexually assaulted her while holding a gun to her stomach.

Denson said the officer began contacting his client while he was free on bail awaiting trial. On several occasions, he said, the officer told Lamattina that she didn't want to see him go to prison.

Prosecutors acknowledged she did call him, though the officer said she only contacted him indirectly through friends after he left messages asking about her.

As part of his sentence, Lamattina cannot own a gun and must undergo counseling.

The officer said she now better understands why rape victims sometimes are reluctant to step forward.

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