On Monday, March 13, 2023, defendant William Lindley [DOB 4/5/1989], a resident of the City of Schenectady was sentenced to forty [40] years in prison to be followed by twenty [20] years of post-release supervision [commonly referred to as parole] by Hon. Felix J. Catena, the Montgomery County Court Judge and the Administrative Judge for the 4th Judicial District, presiding as a visiting judge. A full order of protection for the victim in the case was also issued for forty-eight [48] years. Mr. Lindley will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison for the remainder of his life.
Regarding today’s sentencing, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert M. Carney stated as follows: “As Mr. Carson pointed out to the court at sentencing, this is not Mr. Lindley’s first violent felony conviction, nor is it his first crime perpetrated against a child. The substantial sentence imposed by Judge Catena of 40 years reflects both that history and the severity of harm he caused to this child. At sentencing, Mr. Lindley spoke of himself as a victim of the me-too movement, inadequate police investigation, overzealous prosecution and ineffective assistance by his own lawyer; but neither did he proclaim his own innocence or express an iota of remorse for what he did to this child. The community is safer with him behind bars.”
Today’s sentencing followed a five-day jury trial that began on January 9, 2023, in Schenectady County Court. At the conclusion of the jury trial, Mr. Lindley was convicted of two counts of Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree, class B violent felonies, in violation of New York State Penal Law Section 130.50[4], and one count of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a class D violent felony, in violation of New York State Penal Law Section 130.65[4]. The jury returned their verdict on January 13, 2023, after deliberating for approximately one and a half hours.
The jury convicted Mr. Lindley of fondling and subjecting an 11-year-old female child, well known to him, to anal and oral sexual contact. The sexual assaults occurred in the City of Schenectady on a single day in June of 2020. Mr. Lindley committed these acts while the child’s mother was at work. The investigation began in August of 2021, when the child found the courage to disclose the prior year’s assault to her mother who brought her to the Schenectady Police Department’s Youth Aid Bureau to report the assault. The case was investigated by Schenectady Youth Aid Detective Kristen Florell. After a direct presentation of the case to a Schenectady County Grand Jury in December of 2021, a warrant for Mr. Lindley’s arrest was issued. The Schenectady County Street Crimes Task Force located Mr. Lindley on February 1, 2022, and took him into custody, where he remained pending trial.
At trial the Schenectady County District’s Office called, in addition to the child and the child’s mother, Dr. Eileen Treacy, an Applied Development Psychologist, and an expert in the dynamics of childhood sexual abuse and those effects on children, to educate and assist the jury in understanding how children react to sexual abuse.
The case was prosecuted by Special Victim’s Bureau Chief John J. Carson for the Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office. William Lindley was represented by assigned counsel Carl D. Birman, of the Birman Law Office.