MORRIS TOWNSHIP — A Superior Court judge said today he expects to let a 24-year-old Wayne man withdraw his guilty plea to sexual assault in a 2006 incident in Morris Township. The case is likely to go to trial for a second time. Christopher Linteris had entered his guilty plea after a 2008 trial resulted in a hung jury and...
MORRIS TOWNSHIP — A Superior Court judge said today he expects to let a 24-year-old Wayne man withdraw his guilty plea to sexual assault in a 2006 incident in Morris Township. The case is likely to go to trial for a second time.
Christopher Linteris had entered his guilty plea after a 2008 trial resulted in a hung jury and declaration of a mistrial.
Linteris, then 19, was accused of getting into bed with his brother’s 22-year-old date and having sex with her while she was passed out during a New Year’s Eve party. Linteris said he was intoxicated from alcohol and marijuana.
During a hearing in Morristown today, Judge Thomas Manahan pointed out that Linteris had consistently maintained his innocence since the incident and that stance was "interrupted" only when he pleaded guilty last year.
Manahan said Linteris pleaded guilty because "he could not emotionally and financially proceed to another trial." Linteris is now represented by a public defender, Dolores Mann.
Manahan did not formally rule, saying that before he makes a decision, he wants Assistant Prosecutor Meg Rodriguez to file a brief describing the hardships she will face in prosecuting the case a second time.
Rodriguez said she didn’t want to make the victim go through the ordeal of testifying again about how the defendant allegedly assaulted her while she was sleeping. Rodriguez said it was difficult to get witnesses to testify two years ago and with the "passage of time," their memories would fade and it would be even harder to get them to testify.
A map of Morris Township, where a Wayne man is accused of a 2006 sexual assault.