Published: December 05, 2008 10:37 am      

Soboroff sentenced to 5 more years

CLINTON — A Calamus man whose sentencing was delayed in November after his home caught fire was ordered on Thursday to serve five more years in jail.

Jeffrey Soboroff, 58, appeared before Clinton County Judge Bobbi Alpers Thursday after being convicted of extortion and harassment in September.

According to Clinton County Attorney Mike Wolf, Alpers ordered that the five-year sentence will run concurrently with the five-year sentence Soboroff is currently serving for allegedly threatening to poison the Calamus water supply earlier this year.

“The judge considered the fact that he had a lengthy criminal history of this type of harassment or threats, as well as his behavior in the community,” Wolf said in a telephone interview with the Clinton Herald. “His actions had not been changed through probation or other types of treatment for his mental health, and she felt it was best to protect the citizens of the county.”

Soboroff was found guilty of extortion and harassment after a Sept. 8 bench trial. He was accused after allegedly calling Calamus resident Christi Miller in March and stating he would place photographs of her teenage daughter on Internet sites she wouldn't like if she did not pay him $400 by the next morning.

According to Wolf, Miller testified at the sentencing, stating that the threats have left her and her daughter “shaken and scared.”

Soboroff appeared with his attorney, William Vilmont, who voiced his opinion on the ruling in a telephone interview with the Herald.

“I think it’s a sad situation where you have a person that has been adjudicated to be seriously mentally impaired, that the only way to handle it is to sentence that person to prison,” Vilmont stated.

Wolf noted that, while in prison, Soboroff could possibly receive “some rehabilitation.”