Retired academy professor gets 5 years in prison

By SCOTT DAUGHERTY

A retired Naval Academy professor was sentenced Friday to five years in prison on charges he molested his adopted daughter more than a decade ago when she was only 12 and he was still teaching in Annapolis.

The sentence was the maximum 66-year-old Patrick Ryan Harrison - who retired in 2003 - could have received under a plea agreement with the state.

"The victim in this case was a vulnerable adolescent, a child," Circuit Court Judge J. Michael Wachs said from the bench. "She was hoping and praying for an appropriate father figure."

The now-27-year-old victim, who is pregnant with her second child, broke down in tears Friday in court in Annapolis as she recounted the abuse she suffered at the hand of her father in 1994 and 1995.

She said she was looking forward to living with her mother and Harrison shortly before their wedding in 1994. But within a month of moving in, Harrison began visiting her in her room, talking about sex and touching her inappropriately.

"I was 12 years old and he was 52," she said. "He was supposed to be my protector, not my molester."

The Capital does not name victims of sexual abuse.

According to prosecutors, Harrison, who maintains his innocence, molested his daughter about three times a week in 1994 and 1995 while the two were alone at their home on Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard just outside Annapolis.

The abuse started in November 1994, when the then-12-year-old girl and her mother moved in with her soon-to-be father, and continued until September 1995, when the victim went to high school and her biological mother was diagnosed with cancer, said Assistant State's Attorney Sandra Howell.

The victim did not come forward to police until last December. She told the court she was afraid Harrison would molest her child or one of his other five grandchildren.

Detectives investigated and Harrison was arrested in March.

Harrison taught computer science at the Naval Academy from 1976 until his retirement, according to an academy spokesman.

Harrison, now of Hot Springs Village, Ark., entered an Alford plea July 28 to one count of second-degree sex offense. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain his innocence while admitting that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him. It carries all the consequences of a guilty plea.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to drop other charges and seek an "active" sentence of no more than five years.

Thomas Pavlinic, Harrison's defense attorney, asked the court for leniency yesterday while noting his client's clean criminal record and numerous medical problems, including a bad heart.

Pavlinic also noted how the victim wrote numerous birthday and thank-you cards to her father over the years, including one in 2004 in which she thanked him for adopting her as a child and another in 2002 in which she thanked him for paying for her wedding.

"I have always struggled with the good things he has done for me," the victim told the court. "It doesn't change the fact he sexually abused me."

John Covington, a Severna Park businessman, spoke in support of Harrison. He said that they were friends, that Harrison always tried to help people, and that he enjoyed talking about his children and wife. He said Harrison was active at Severna Park United Methodist Church before he moved to Arkansas.

Harrison addressed the court, but did not apologize. He said he entered the Alford plea because he could see the victim was pregnant and he did not want to subject his family to a trial.

"I do love the Naval Academy, but I love my family a lot more," he said.

Wachs sentenced Harrison to 20 years in prison, but suspend all but five years. He ordered Harrison to have no contact with the victim or children.

Upon Harrison's release from prison, he will be on probation for five years. Due to when the abuse occurred, however, he will not have to register as a sex offender, attorneys said.

Wachs noted that while it was apparent Harrison had good traits, the judge said what he did to his daughter was "horrific."

"Sometimes you just don't know what happens behind closed doors," Wachs said.