Ex-Ricoh president admits sex abuse
He faces seven years for molesting 3 girls
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
BY MARGARET McHUGH
Star-Ledger Staff
Sitting tall in his business suit and glasses, the former president of Ricoh Corp. admitted to a judge yesterday that he had molested three girls between January 1989 and February.
James Ivy, 52, a father of six, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and child endangerment, and faces up to seven years in state prison. Ivy, who had to move out of his Montville home following his arrest in February, rents an apartment in Parsippany.
Police began investigating when the mother of an 8-year-old girl reported that Ivy had been molesting her child since January 2001, according to court records. The child told an investigator that in the summer of 2001, Ivy performed a sexual act, according to the arrest affidavit.
Two other girls came forward, saying they too had been molested by Ivy. One victim, now 21, recalled being abused when she was in the second or third grade; the other, now 18, said he had molested her for six years, starting in 1992 when she was 8.
Gerard Hanlon, Ivy's attorney, said Ivy "is getting help" and that he accepted the plea deal because "he thought it was the right thing to do, all things considered."
Under the deal, Ivy faces up to seven years of incarceration, and would not be eligible for parole until he served 85 percent of his sentence. He will have to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law and will be placed under community supervision for life when he completes his sentence.
Hanlon said he expects Ivy will be deemed a repetitive and compulsive sex offender when he is evaluated at the state Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge. If that were the case, Ivy would serve his sentence at the treatment center.
Hanlon intends to argue for a five-year prison term when Ivy is sentenced Sept. 12, and the attorney expects to have the backing of the victims. "The victims are most sympathetic ... and will most likely speak on his behalf at his sentencing," Hanlon said.
Ivy spent 20 years at the West Caldwell-based Ricoh Corp. before resigning in March, five months after he had been named president. Ricoh is a diversified office automation equipment and electronics provider with annual sales exceeding $2.2 billion. Ivy has since gotten another management job, his attorney said.
Original Post