Doctor who challenged porn probation could face jail time
A former Luling doctor who received five years of probation in 2006 after pleading no contest to one count of attempted possession of child pornography could be sentenced to up to five years in jail after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal declared the original sentence illegal.
Dr. David Sampognaro was originally indicted with 21 counts of possession of pornography involving juveniles and pled not guilty to the charges. When the state amended the indictment to charge Sampognaro with one count of attempted possession of child pornography, the doctor pled no contest to the charge.
On Dec. 7, 2006, Judge Emile St. Pierre sentenced Sampognaro to five years in jail, which was suspended in favor of five years of probation with numerous conditions, including that the doctor register as a sex offender.
At that point, Sampognaro filed a motion to modify and/or reduce his sentence, which was denied in part by the trial court. Sampognaro recently filed another appeal claiming that the court erred in denying his motion to modify and/or reduce his sentence.
At the heart of Sampognaro’s appeal were three conditions of his probation, which he felt were unfair. Those conditions were that Sampognaro was prohibited from attending school functions with his minor children, must post a notice outside his medical office regarding his sex offender status, and serve eight hours of community service every week for the first year of probation.
Instead of ruling that those conditions were unfair, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal found that Sampognaro’s original sentence was illegal because he was given probation for an offense that does not permit probation.
“The trial court sentenced defendant to five years with the Department of Corrections but suspended the sentence and placed defendant on active probation, with numerous conditions, for five years,” the ruling said. “Thus, defendant received an illegal sentence.”
According to the court of appeal, a person who is convicted of an attempt to commit a crime “shall be fined or imprisoned…in the same manner as for the offense attempted.”
However, the fine or imprisonment cannot exceed half the longest term of imprisonment or half of the maximum fine. The minimum sentence for possession of child pornography is two years and the maximum is 10 years.
The court of appeal decided to vacate Sampognaro’s sentence and send the case back to St. Pierre for resentencing. According to the court, there is no need to reserve the defendant’s right to withdraw his no contest plea because it was not conditioned on any particular sentence.
St. Pierre, who will resentence Sampognaro on June 4, is prohibited from discussing an ongoing case by the judicial cannon of ethics.
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