Taser-wielding voyeur gets 5-year sentence in BCC attack

From: The Miami Herald  | Date: August 25, 2005  | Author: EVAN S. BENN  

Ronald Perry knew he had done something terribly wrong when he sneaked into a college bathroom, filmed a pregnant woman, then shocked her with a Taser gun.

"I saw I really hurt her, and that upset me," Perry said Wednesday during a four-hour sentencing hearing in front of Broward Circuit Judge Marc H. Gold.

Gold sentenced Perry, 26, of Hollywood, to five years in prison followed by five years of probation and sex-offender counseling. Perry faced life in prison for charges of voyeurism, attempted armed kidnapping and assault, to which he pleaded guilty in February. But his victim's testimony Wednesday helped persuade Gold to be lenient in what the judge called an "outrageous, incredible" crime.

Perry's victim, now 23, told the judge she thought "between five and 10 years" would be an appropriate prison sentence.
She testified she was pregnant in February 2004 when the incident happened at a bathroom on Broward Community College's main campus in Davie. Perry hid in a women's bathroom stall and, when the victim entered an adjacent stall, he tried to videotape her with a camera hidden in a book bag, she said.

The victim said she then felt a jolt from a Taser stun gun go up her leg.

She and Perry both ran out of the bathroom immediately after the incident. Several students and a BCC security guard stopped Perry and called police. Defense attorney Viviane Gariboldi called Perry's mother, brother, ex-girlfriend, psychologist and others to testify on his behalf Wednesday.

"He's not a bad person. He just needs help," Perry's mother, Linda Gibson, told the judge. "I'm just sorry the girl got hurt."

Perry acknowledged on the witness stand that he had previously tried to photograph an unsuspecting girl in a bathroom several years ago when he worked at a Davie Subway restaurant. He pleaded no contest to charges in that incident and was ordered to pay a fine. Still, he hid his obsession with voyeurism from his loved ones out of embarrassment, he said.

"How do you tell your family and friends that you're dealing with something like that?" Perry asked.

In his sentencing decision, Gold said he was more concerned about Perry's use of a Taser stun gun than his attempt to take unsolicited photographs. Perry promised the judge it would be his last offense, then he turned to his victim to offer her an apology.

"I really hope you can forgive me one day," Perry said.