Howard Draper
/ file photo
SYRACUSE -- A Central New York man was in court Tuesday to plead guilty to child endangerment, the latest in a string of court appearances for the Iraq War veteran.
Howard "Bill" Draper entered a guilty plea to a charge of endangering the welfare of a child, stemming from an incident in East Syracuse in September 2009.
In exchange for pleading guilty, State Supreme Court Justice John Brunetti sentenced Draper to one year of conditional discharge. Is that a fair sentence for this guilty plea?
The incident in 2009 occurred just one week after Howard Draper was acquitted in another trial in which he was accused of sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl. Draper was taking care of the child while her mother was on active military duty in Afghanistan. The girl claimed Draper inappropriately touched her and made her touch him on two separate occasions.
When the case concluded, Onondaga County Assistant District Attorney Dan Barry said he could not comment about the not guilty verdict because of two other pending cases against Draper. Draper was accused of sexually abusing two other young children.
