Former FDNY Captain Pleads No Contest To Molesting Boys In Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A former FDNY captain who worked on Staten Island pleaded no contest Thursday to sexually molesting two 11-year-old brothers while he was visiting family in Los Angeles last September.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Wilbert Riera, 52, entered the no contest plea Thursday.
Riera resigned from the FDNY on Wednesday. His sentencing is set for Oct. 8.
Under the terms of the negotiated plea, he will be sentenced to five years formal probation and 270 days in county jail, CBS Los Angeles reported. In addition, he will be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.
Riera must also complete a minimum of one year of sex offender therapy, CBS LA reported.
Riera was arrested in September of last year at a Staten Island firehouse and was extradited from New York.
In his hometown of Bay Shore, Long Island, the captain's next-door neighbor, Bill Smith, told WCBS 880 last year that he was "shocked" to hear the accusations.
"He lives with his mom. He takes care of her," Smith told WCBS 880's Mike Xirinachs in October 2014. "And he's always friendly. Waves to everybody...After Sandy, he was asking everybody if they were OK."
Riera's attorney, Shawn Holley, said she's convinced of her client's innocence, but that he could have faced life in prison if convicted at trial, and that risk was too great.
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