72-year-old gets new trial on molestation charges, ordered released - Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE – A 72-year-old man found guilty last year of molesting two boys at the Fort Marcy Recreational Complex has had his convictions overturned, and a judge on Tuesday ordered that he can be released from jail.

Court records indicate that District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer last month overturned the May 2017 convictions at trial of Eric Knee on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor under age 13. She granted a defense motion for a new, third trial based on new evidence.

An initial prosecution of Knee ended in a mistrial.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

On Tuesday, Marlowe Sommer rejected a prosecution request that Knee remain in jail, where he’s been held for 18 months, pending a third trial. His lawyers filed a motion for a new trial more than a year ago.

Knee is accused of sexually assaulting two boys age 11 and 12 in the locker/shower room at Fort Marcy in December 2015.

Knee’s attorney, Dan Cron, said the new evidence includes a testimony from an eyewitness present during the locker room incident who says he saw or heard nothing unusual and that the boys were not in distress. Cron said there are also new accounts from other witnesses, that Knee successfully passed a polygraph test, and that there’s been a psychosexual evaluation that indicated Knee had no sexual interest in males of any age.

At Tuesday’s detention hearing, prosecutor Jennifer Padgett Macias argued that Knee should stay in jail because the presumption of innocence no longer applied given his previous conviction. She also argued that Knee had committed perjury in denying accusations that he had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct in 2011 at another city-operated recreation center.

District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer addresses her concerns with the prosecution\’s arguments during a hearing Tuesday on the release of molestation defendant Eric Knee. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

But Judge Marlowe Sommer wasn’t buying it. “I don’t think that argument is made in good faith,” she said, adding that perjury charges had been dismissed.

The judge also became frustrated with Padgett Macias. “I’m just asking the state to give me reasons (for keeping him incarcerated) other than ‘we’re scared,'” she said.

The judge then outlined Knee’s conditions of release, which with the addition of house arrest are stricter than the conditions placed on him prior to being found guilty.

He must post a $2,500 unsecured appearance bond, cannot consume alcohol, and must stay at least 100 yards away from the alleged victims’ home and school, “which you’re not going to do because you’re under house arrest,” the judge added.

Next up in the case is a pretrial hearing set for Feb. 14. A jury trial is scheduled to begin in April.

Knee and city government also face civil litigation from the families of the two boys over the alleged molestations.

https://ift.tt/2P5OYXG