He allegedly sexually assaulted a girl. A judge went easy on him: He 'comes from a good family'
MONMOUTH, N.J. – A New Jersey appellate court has sharply criticized a Monmouth County judge for barring prosecutors from charging a juvenile as an adult for the alleged videotaped sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl because it would have “a devastating effect” on his college plans and future.
“[T]his young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely well,” Superior Court James G. Troiano said of the accused, according to the appellate court decision.
“He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college. His scores for college entry were very high,” the judge added. Troiano also referenced the teen being an Eagle Scout.
An appellate court overturned the decision June 14, clearing the way for prosecutors to bring aggravated sexual assault and other adult charges against the teen to a grand jury.
Prosecutors allege the then-16-year-old defendant, identified only by the initials G.M.C., videotaped himself having sex with the 16-year-old girl in a secluded basement space during a 2017 pajama-themed party while the girl was inebriated, according to the appellate decision.
Prosecutors say he later shared the video with friends and boasted to them in explicit text messages about raping the girl, the decision states. In the days following the incident, the decision states, G.M.C. sent the following text to his friends: "[w]hen your first time having sex was rape."
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In its ruling, the appellate court said Troiano had in effect “decided the case himself” rather than considering the statutory basis for the prosecution’s request for a waiver to move the case to adult criminal court.
The appellate court found that the prosecution had satisfied the 11 specific requirements for such a waiver, which is only applicable to juvenile defendants 15 or older accused of serious crimes.
The appellate court also took issue with the deference the judge seemed to show toward the defendant’s privileged background.
“That the juvenile came from a good family and had good test scores we assume would not condemn the juveniles who do not come from good families and do not have good test scores from withstanding waiver applications,” the appellate court said.
Troiano, 69, is a 26-year veteran of the bench with extensive experience in Family Court, principally in Essex County, according to an online biography.
Gramiccioni said the next step would either be to seek an indictment from a grand jury or to reach a pre-indictment resolution with the defendant. The defendant's lawyer, Mitchell J. Ansell, could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.
Shannon Mullen has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has won numerous other awards for his in-depth investigations and narrative profiles.
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