Michael Cinefra didn't get himself into this mess.
To hear defense attorney Patrick Thomassey tell it, it's not Cinefra's fault the former Plum High School teacher is charged with having sex with a student. The fault clearly lies with the 15-year-old seductress who wasn't legally old enough to consent to the act.
Thomassey is playing a game of “blame the victim.”
It's not as trendy a pastime as, say, “Words with Friends,” the online game Cinefra and his alleged victim often engaged in as their student-teacher relationship inappropriately evolved. But it's particularly popular among defense attorneys with clients in precarious legal positions.
There's no shortage of those involved with the Plum School District these days. Cinefra and two other teachers have been charged with having sex with students; another teacher was charged with witness intimidation after police said he identified one of the alleged victims in class.
Thomassey, who didn't respond to phone and email messages on Thursday, played the blame-the-victim game expertly on Wednesday at the preliminary hearing for Cinefra, 29, of Penn Hills. He faces so many charges that it's nearly impossible to recite them all in a single breath.
To suggest Cinefra is the victim in this situation requires either All-Star skills at suspension of disbelief or the oratory abilities of a seasoned defense attorney. Thomassey displayed the latter with remarks that would not have been out of place on an episode of, “The Neanderthal's Court.”
“We have a lot of things to sort out down the road,” he said. “There is no doubt the young lady instigated the relationship.”
That statement not only is distasteful. It's a first cousin to one that blames rape victims for their own assaults because they dressed too provocatively and thus asked for it.
Thomassey said it's unclear whether Cinefra was aware the girl was only 15.
Although that's plausible given how uncommon it is to find 15-year-olds in high school, that defense legally is irrelevant.
Even if Cinefra believed the girl was 16, the age of consent in Pennsylvania, he still broke the law if he and the victim did what the victim admitted before a grand jury to doing. State law governing institutional sexual assault is clear on the matter: Teachers aren't permitted to engage in sex with their students even if both are adults.
Thomassey undoubtedly is aware of that. But facts aren't always convenient when someone is attempting to shift blame for untoward behavior from the person who allegedly committed the bad deed.
Cinefra has to be sweating as he wonders whether this Neanderthal defense strategy will work. If it doesn't, he can forget about playing “Words with Friends” for the foreseeable future.
Do they offer “Words with Felons” in prison?
Eric Heyl is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7857 or eheyl@tribweb.com.
