Man pleads guilty to molesting boys in 1970s
But he refuses to take a polygraph on Oakland Co. child killings
March 28, 2007
By BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Ted Lamborgine pleaded guilty today to 15 sex-related charges
involving boys during the 1970s, mostly in Detroit's Cass Corridor
area.
In a twist, assistant Wayne County prosecutor Robert Moran informed
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry that Lamborgine turned
down a deal for guilty pleas to only two cases and a sentence
reduction in exchange for his agreement to take a polygraph test
involving the Oakland County child killings, which also took place
during the 1970s.
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Lamborgine, 66, faces life in prison when sentenced April 20. Had he
taken the deal with prosecutors, he would have faced a possible 15-
year minimum sentence with a maximum sentence to be determined, Moran
said.
"I can't in my wildest dreams imagine why he wouldn't cooperate,''
Moran said after the hearing.
He was also offered a deal, where he would plead guilty to two
charges, without any cooperation, and face 25 to 50 years. Lamborgine
also rejected that deal and decided to plead guilty to all 15 charges.
His lawyer Rita Young said after the hearing that Lamborgine has no
knowledge of the child killings. As to his refusal to take the
polygraph, "He did not want to go through the interrogation process.''
Lamborgine had been living in Parma, Ohio, until last year when he was
arrested.
The cases involve five victims, all under age 15, including an 11-year-
old and 12-year-old.
In the Oakland County child killings, the victims - two girls and two
boys - were abducted and held for days before their bodies were found,
dressed in their own clothes. Their bodies, including their
fingernails, were clean.
hometown. He was found March 22, 1977, in a ditch off Gill Road near 8
Mile in Livonia. He had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.
her home. She was found Jan. 21, 1977, on a rural road near Telegraph
and 12 Mile in Franklin Village. She had been suffocated.
hometown. She was found Dec. 26, 1976, near I-75 north of Big Beaver
in Troy. She had been shot in the head.
hometown. He was found Feb. 19, 1976, near a parking lot at the
Fairfax Plaza Building, at 10 Mile and Greenfield, in Southfield. He
had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Investigators have recently said that the four children may have been
killed as part of a brazen pedophilia ring that operated out of the
Cass Corridor in the 1970s.
Moran told Berry that the requested polygraph involved the ongoing
investigation "involving the deaths of Mark Stebbins, Jill Robinson,
Kristine Mihelich and Timothy King."
"He has rejected that. So the court is aware the defendant is pleading
guilty as charged to all the counts."
Lamborgine and Richard Lawson, 60, were arrested in December for
allegedly running a pedophile ring in the Cass Corridor.
Lawson is already serving a life prison sentenced for a 1989 Livonia
murder.
Both men are accused of abusing some of the same boys, though not at
the same time. Lawson has done television interviews in which he said
he had knowledge of the child killer, who is now dead.
Lawson faces 11 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving young
boys. He is scheduled to appear in Wayne County Circuit Court Friday
for a preliminary hearing.
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