this guy is a piece of garbage....
Man gets probation for telephone harassment
Judge says he struggled to arrive at sentence appropriate for case
BALLSTON SPA -- Calling it a difficult decision, a judge sentenced a local man to probation rather than the jail time sought by prosecutors for harassing an elderly neighbor via telephone.
Village Court Judge Tom Schroeder said he grappled with how to punish Michael Fuschino, a repeat offender with a nearly 30-year history of harassing women. Fuschino was sentenced Monday to three years on probation after pleading guilty to aggravated harassment for repeatedly calling an 86-year-old neighbor on the phone, then hanging up.
Fuschino's record as a repeat offender shows jail is "just as ineffective" a deterrent in his case as probation, the judge said. Schroeder went against a request from District Attorney James A. Murphy III for jail time, choosing probation because it requires Fuschino to report to a probation officer for three years. The judge issued a five-year protection order that bars Fuschino from contacting the victim.
Fuschino, 48, was convicted 15 times between 1980 and 2006, including five times for aggravated harassment. He has been fined, spent time in jail and state prison and been on probation. He has also been found guilty of criminal contempt. His behavior ranges from hangup calls, mimicking a woman's voice to have his victim's power shut off and submitting false obituaries to local newspapers.
Fuschino's most recent victim has said he called her over the course of six years, never saying a word when she picked up the phone, and then hanging up. She figured out it was Fuschino when she overheard his father's voice speaking to him during a call.
Fuschino declined to comment while leaving the court.
