Montpelier — The Senate Judiciary Committee's continuing debate about whether to impose mandatory minimum sentences for sex crimes against children took on political overtones yesterday as Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, a law professor who now works with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and a Vermont radio talk-show host, testified in favor of the measure.

Dubie, a Republican up for reelection this year, presented "10 action steps to protect Vermont's children," including passage of a Vermont version of "Jessica's Law," legislation including mandatory minimum sentences named for a 9-year-old girl who was raped and murdered last year in Florida.

Dubie also alluded to the furor sparked in January when Vermont District Court Judge Edward Cashman, a lifelong friend of the Dubie family, initially gave admitted child molester Mark Hulett a 60-day jail sentence, which the judge said at the time was the best way to get Hulett the community-based treatment that would reduce his risk of reoffending. Cashman later lengthened the sentence to a minimum of three years.

"I would say 60 days is not appropriate for that" crime, Dubie said. "I've tried to assimilate what I've heard from Vermont ... We need laws in our corrections system that separate those that we're mad at and those that we're afraid of." State Sen. George Coppenrath, a West Barnet Republican who represents several Upper Valley towns in Orange County, also called for mandatory minimum sentences, noting that he had earlier given the committee a petition signed by more than 2,000 Vermonters calling for a Jessica's Law.

"The issue is what is the best punishment and treatment solution for each crime," Coppenrath said. "These criminals are sane, they know right from wrong, they need incarceration, and they need treatment, in that order."

Three Democrats on the Judiciary panel have said they are wary of imposing mandatory minimum sentences as part of a larger sex offender bill working its way through the legislature, noting testimony from victims' advocates and some prosecutors who say the sentences would discourage plea bargains, force more reluctant victims to testify and lead to more acquittals.

Tensions heightened yesterday when Wendy Murphy, an adjunct professor at the New England School of Law and a former prosecutor who specialized in sex crimes, testified in favor of mandatory minimums. Murphy — who also does some work on the issue for O'Reilly, the Fox News host who blasted Cashman in January — said at least one "small" study indicated that child victims might fare better later by testifying; she also said she favors compelling the testimony of child victims.

"When we let a child or a child's parent choose not to testify, you are really giving that power to the perpetrator," said Murphy.

But state Sen. Ann Cummings, a Montpelier Democrat and key swing vote on the committee, bristled during Murphy's testimony and said parents want to protect children from grueling, sometimes "retraumatizing," testimony on the stand.

"To make that kind of blanket statement pushed mother buttons I wasn't even sure I had," Cummings, who has four children and has worked professionally with victims, said later.

But Murphy's arguments also got some support from the testimony of Charlotte, Vt., resident Catherine Metropoulos, whose 12-year-old daughter was sexually molested by the family's Greek Orthodox priest in Burlington in 1997 and had to testify at his trial.

Despite the grueling ordeal her daughter endured, Metropoulos said she favors mandatory minimum sentences. She said the since-defrocked priest served only 120 days in prison on a six-month to five-year sentence and resisted court-ordered treatment.

"I feel when sentencing an adult who has sexually violated a child, there must be zero tolerance. We must insist on stricter punishments for these child offenders and stricter enforcements about their receiving sex offender treatment," Metropoulos testified.

"I'm just so sorry that things have not worked out for your daughter," Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Sears, a Bennington Democrat who favors mandatory minimums, said. "I think in the past we've treated sex offenders too lightly ... it's hard not to recognize a piece of history and a lesson here."

The committee also heard from Paul Beaudry, a Swanton, Vt., resident and radio and television talk-show host in Franklin County who helped organize a rally in support of Jessica's Law and mandatory minimum sentences.

"Whenever I brought up the issue on the radio, the phone lines would just light up. It was unbelievable," said Beaudry. He also said he reads the results of roll-call votes on criminal justice issues by Franklin County legislators on the air and said voters will be paying attention in November.

"If we don't win one way, we can win another way," Beaudry said.

Sears has offered an amendment with four mandatory minimum terms, including a five-year minimum for a second conviction for lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and a minimum 10-year mandatory sentence for conviction of aggravated sexual assault against a victim under 13.

But the House in February rejected mandatory minimum sentences, and House Speaker Gaye Symington yesterday said she doubts lawmakers would agree to them should they pass the Senate.

"I just don't see it. We really went through it on the House side," said Symington, a Jericho Democrat.

Sears said the bill is slated to be voted out of the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, and would then be reviewed by the Appropriations Committee before hitting the Senate floor.

He said he does not think the public will accept the argument that mandatory minimum sentences could actually lead to more acquittals of sex offenders.