A former UA student was sentenced to three years probation in Pima County Superior Court Friday after pleading guilty to an aggravated assault charge in connection with an alleged 1994 campus rape.

"It wouldn't take much to persuade me to place you in custody," Judge Richard Nichols told Peter Hart Pisciotta as he handed down the sentence. "You've gotten all the breaks you're going to get."

The sentence is the most probation time a defendant may receive for aggravated assault.

Pisciotta, 23, pleaded guilty Oct. 3 to felony aggravated assault after initial sexual assault charges were reduced as part of a plea agreement.

Defense attorney Stephen Weiss said Friday that Pisciotta was "a different person" and asked the judge not to impose the maximum length of probation.

Prosecutor Kathleen Mayer disagreed with Weiss.

"He (Pisciotta) doesn't get it," she said, asking for jail time as well as three years probation. "Not once did he say, 'I may have hurt someone.'"

Nichols asserted that the plea agreement, which stipulated that the victim not file a personal statement with the court, influenced his decision.

"I'm basically left without her version of the events," Nichols said. "This places the court in a rather awkward position."

Nichols also told Pisciotta after the sentence was given, "It looks like something bad happened and it looks like you're the cause of it."

Neither Weiss nor Mayer would comment following the hearing.

Pisciotta pleaded not guilty in February 1995 to charges he sexually assaulted a 20-year-old female student at a 1994 Halloween party in the former Delta Chi fraternity house, 1701 E. First St.

Detective Sgt. Sal Celi of the University of Arizona Police Department said that during questioning after the assault, Pisciotta admitted having sexual intercourse with the victim, but said it was consensual.

The victim, however, told police it was not.

"The evidence we gathered from the scene indicated that (the victim) was incapacitated by alcohol consumption," Celi said.

Nichols later remanded the initial case to a grand jury due to questions surrounding statements the victim made to another fraternity member the night of the incident.

Because of the impending plea agreement, a jury never reheard the case.

---

Daily Wildcat News Opinions Sports PoliceBeat Comics