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State Superior Court denies man’s appeal in child sexual assault in Donora

By Mark Hofmann mhofmann@heraldstandard.Com 2 min read

The appeal of a Millsboro man convicting of sexually abusing a child in Donora was denied by the state Superior Court.

On June 2, 2012, Damien D. Milchak, 36, was charged with rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors after an incident with a 10-year-old boy in the Washington County borough.

After going through a series of court-appointed attorneys, he entered a no-contest plea in 2013, to the charges of endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and corruption of a minor.

The remaining charges were dropped and Milchak was sentenced to serve 11½ months to 23 months in prison, five years probation and to report under Megan’s Law for 15 years.

Milchak was released from prison three days later for time served and placed on probation. He appealed the conviction in 2016, claiming his attorney was ineffective because she failed to provide him all of the discovery she had in his case. He claimed if he saw all of the information, he would have rejected the plea offer and opted for trial.

In May 2017, a Washington County judge denied his appeal, and he challenged that ruling before the Superior Court.

In an opinion, Superior Court Judge Deborah A. Kunselman found that Milchak’s attorney discussed with him all of the evidence in the case.

Kunselman added that the no-contest plea, while having the same effect as a guilty plea for sentencing and considered to be a conviction, was not due to ineffectiveness of Milchak’s counsel as it’s not an admittance of committing the acts.

“The trial court explained this fact to (Milchak) during its oral colloquy with him, and (Milchak) stated that he understood,” Kunselman wrote.

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