Though a jury convicted him earlier this year of repeatedly raping two girls in 2010 and 2011, Juan Rivera Jr. remained defiant even after receiving a sentence that guarantees he will die in prison.
"The only thing I'm guilty of and I'm sorry of is being a strict father," the 37-year-old said moments before Lackawanna County Judge Michael J. Barrasse handed down the sentence of 108 to 216 years in prison followed by 10 years of special probation. "I am innocent of all these charges, your honor."
Once the judge read the sentence, Mr. Rivera did not waver, only turned around to his wife and young son and told them he loved them before sheriff's deputies led him away.
A jury convicted Mr. Rivera in September of 24 of the 26 counts against him, including multiple counts of rape of a child, rape by forcible compulsion and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.
The verdict followed a trial that saw both victims - 15 and 13 at the time - testify to repeated instances of various sexual abuses Mr. Rivera inflicted on them.
Those girls returned to the same courtroom Tuesday and quietly listened, at times crying, as their father asked Judge Barrasse to impose a harsh sentence.
"I want him to rot," he said.
The Times-Tribune does not identify victims of sexual assault.
Before Mr. Rivera spoke, his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Joseph Kalinowski, stressed that his client "went to trial believing he did not commit a crime" and has not changed his stance since.
"Kids are born actresses nowadays," Mr. Rivera said while addressing the court moments later. "To them it's not a lie. It's twisting the truth; and shed a tear if you can."
Before Judge Barrasse read Mr. Rivera's sentence, Mr. Kalinowski pushed to have the individual sentences imposed on the various counts against Mr. Rivera run concurrently. He argued that would be the more appropriate punishment, as the allegations failed to distinguish specific dates of each incident, rather than grouping them into one larger time frame.
Still, the judge read off a series of consecutive sentences, most of them of 10 to 20 years per count, until finally providing the total and acknowledging that it, "exceeds your life span."
Contact the writer: domalley@timesshamrock.com, @domalleyTT on Twitter