The mother of the 14-year-old girl molested by a former CEO made her first public statement against the man ? who remains a highly paid employee at Lantham-based Integral Systems Inc.
Steven Chamberlain, of Columbia, “took advantage of a position of trust and used that position to steal a girl?s childhood,” the mother, who now lives in North Carolina, said in a statement read to The Examiner by her attorney Thursday.
The woman, on behalf of her daughter, filed a $16.1 million lawsuit Wednesday in Howard County Circuit Court, stating that her daughter has suffered “extreme mental distress” that requires counseling.
Baltimore attorney Andrew D. Freeman, who represents the girl and her mother, called Howard County Circuit Court Judge Diane Leasure?s sentence for Chamberlain ? five years? probation ? too light.
“We?re confident that the people of Howard County speaking through a jury will more appropriately punish him for this crime, ” he said.
“He gets to go on with no real consequences, and she has suffered so much.”
NeitherChamberlain nor his attorney, Price Gielen, returned calls seeking comment.
Through an aide, Leasure declined to be interviewed.
Chamberlain pleaded guilty in April to a fourth-degree sex offense, admitting to molesting the girl four times between November 2003 and May 2004, according to an agreed-upon statement of facts in the criminal case.
Leasure ruled that Chamberlain did not have to register as a sex offender or serve a year in jail, as Howard County State?s Attorney Timothy McCrone requested.
Instead, she suspended Chamberlain?s one-year sentence, put him on five years of probation and ordered him to pay $7,201 in restitution to the victim?s family.
Leasure said a psychosexual evaluation in Chamberlain?s defense showed he was not a danger to other children.
