Symonds Found Guilty by Jury Trial of All Sexual Charges

LIVINGSTON COUNTY — After a difficult two-day trial, a Livingston County Jury has found Frederick Symonds Jr., 45, guilty on all counts.

Charges included criminal sex act in the 3rd degree, a class E felony; sexual misconduct; and incest. Symonds faces a potential sentence of of up to 8 years. The victim was 16 at the time of the incident.

The jury deliberated for nearly two full days before coming to the unanimous verdict on the Class E felony charge and the three other counts.

During the gut-wrenching trial, the victim testified that Symonds molested her frequently during the summer months of 2011 and 2012.

Another family relative, who has already pled guilty to criminal sex acts against the same victim, and is also awaiting sentencing, also testified against Symonds.

According to Symonds’ own testimony, he did not tell authorities until months after he discovered the other family member was molesting the victim. Symonds claimed he was on his way to jail himself on sex charges when he told a Livingston County Sheriffs Deputy, who is mandated by law to report the incident, never followed up on his allegations. It was months later when the other family member was finally charged.

“I washed my hands of it,” Symonds testified, trying to explain why he never told authorities that the girl was being molested.

D.A. Greg McCaffrey stated in closing to the jury that he suspected the reason Symonds never went to authorities earlier is because Symonds himself was molesting the girl and that anyone with a clear conscience would turn in someone that was molesting a family member.

Marcea Clark Tetamore, Symonds’s defense attorney,  described the case as a perfect example of the classic “he said, she said,” due to the lack of physical evidence and eyewitnesses.