Mitchell W. Brokob, the man accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in North Tonawanda earlier this year, pleaded guilty Thursday morning in Niagara County Court.

Brokob agreed to serve 25 years to life in prison, the maximum sentence for the top count of the six-count indictment.

He was arrested in June for the March 20 abduction and sexual assault in an abandoned house at 608 Gilmore Ave.

Brokob faces additional federal charges — one count for receipt of child pornography — based on evidence recovered during the police investigation. Federal Public Defender Tracy Hayes said that charge will likely be covered by a separate plea agreement entered sometime in the next two months.

He received no leniency in Niagara County Court.

“Part of this agreement is that you will receive the maximum sentence on each count,” Judge Matthew Murphy said prior to Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Donatello reading the indictment.

A grand jury in June indicted Brokob, 41, of North Tonawanda, on four counts of predatory sexual assault against a child, one count of second-degree kidnapping and one count of second-degree kidnapping as a sexually motivated felony.

“Do you realize that the decisions you make today will likely affect the rest of your life?” Murphy asked the defendant.

“Yes,” said Brokob, who has lost about 100 pounds, grown a beard and wears a short-cropped haircut since being incarcerated almost six months ago.

What followed was an emotional scene, as sobbing broke out in the section of the gallery where members of the victim’s family were seated.

“We’ll do it one count at a time,” Murphy instructed Donatello prior to her obligation to read each charge aloud.

“On or about March 20, 2008, the defendant, being 18 years of age or older, engaged in oral sexual conduct with a child less than 13 years old by forceful compulsion ...”

“Guilty,” Brokob said regarding the second of four counts entitled predatory sexual assault against a child.

“Did you abduct a young child in North Tonawanda, Mr. Brokob?” Murphy asked with regard to count five, kidnapping in the second degree.

“Yes,” stated Brokob.

“Did you abduct her for your own sexual gratification, Mr. Brokob?”

“Yes,” he said again.

A similar dialogue repeated itself, briskly, six times in a row.

Murphy scheduled the official sentencing for March 5.

Behind bars

Brokob’s state sentence is set to run concurrent with a maximum of 20 years for the federal pornography charge. Therefore, the federal sentence will be served first and will dictate how long he spends in a penitentiary before being sent back into the state prison system.

The federal penitentiary, however, is exactly where Brokob hopes to be, and the one reason his attorneys say he took the deal — which spares their client nothing else.

“He got to spend his first part of his sentence in a federal penitentiary, where they have better medical treatments,” Assistant Public Defender Christopher Privateer said of his client’s decision.

Brokob told Murphy on Thursday about numerous prescriptions he takes for depression, anxiety as well as neck and back pain.

Interestingly, he chose not to take a deal offered in early October for a maximum of 25 years behind bars on the state charges. That might have limited his overall sentence to something like 45 years. At the time, two separate molestations in Erie County — one in Brokob’s former hometown of Lackawanna — were factors in the deal.

“We were at a different stage then,” Donatello said. “We did not include Erie County (charges) in this plea. The further along in the process we go and the more the victim is subjected to the anxiety of a trial, (the more) we have no incentive to offer a deal.”

How much time Brokob actually serves will depend on decisions by a future parole board.

“They could choose to keep him for the rest of his natural life,” Donatello said.

Murphy advised him that, if released, he will be required to register as a sex offender, be screened to determine his likelihood of repeat offense, and could be subject to monitoring for decades once free.

The girl had already prepared to testify by Thursday’s plea agreement. The case would have gone to trial three weeks from now. Donatello stressed time and time again the victim’s maturity, cool-headedness and keen observations in assisting police and prosecutors.

Evidence

Police conducted two consent searches surrounding Brokob’s arrest.

A DNA swab provided by the defendant — taken by police as part of a voluntary neighborhood canvass — led to Brokob’s arrest after it was found an identical match to evidence found at the scene.

Later, a search of his home turned up several additional pieces of evidence, including computer content. Brokob lived three doors down from the abandoned 608 Gilmore Ave. building where the girl was taken and assaulted.

North Tonawanda Police Lt. Tom Krantz said detectives were at Brokob’s door the day it all happened, because he lived so close to the crime scene. Since then another 60 pieces of evidence linked to Brokob to the scene. Brokob had previously told police he broke into the house “to look around.”

“We don’t believe he had any chance of winning in a trial whatsoever,” Krantz said.

When asked whether or not the DNA alone was the strongest piece of evidence, Donatello said “that’s a police question but what I can tell you is without DNA we still had a very strong circumstantial case against him,” Donatello said.

Brokob was remanded to federal marshals for custody prior to the federal hearing, but may remain at Niagara County Jail, which has an arrangement to house federal detainees at a rate of $75 per day, until the federal charge has been addressed.

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.