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Two more victims contacted authorities after reading online accounts of the ongoing case of Adel Baladi, both Superior Court Judge James J. Guida and Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Dion Findley said before today’s sentencing (Although they didn’t mention it by name, CLIFFVIEW PILOT is the only media publication that has written about the case).
Jury selection for a trial was nearly complete in June when Baladi (above, left) suddenly pleaded guilty to a single count of criminal sexual contact, admitting that he groped a woman and pressed his groin against her after convincing her to bend over her car door to turn on her air conditioner.
She pushed him away, he said, after which he said he told her: “I’m sorry. You really turn me on.”
Last month, however, Baladi asked Guida to withdraw the plea.
A new defense attorney in the case, Anthony Fusco, told the judge today that claims by the new victims should be consolidated with the original woman’s allegation. He also said his client was “coerced” into pleading guilty by his previous lawyer.
Guida, in turn, told Fusco he’d questioned Balardi at length in June and was satisfied that the Syrian native, and father of three, understood and spoke English well. He pleaded guilty voluntarily, the judge said.
Guida also told Fusco that the reason the new complainants came forward in the first place was because they read about his client’s admission.
Baladi accepted the plea deal from prosecutors, in part, the judge maintained, because he feared the testimony of two other woman from his past who agreed to travel from California and western Pennsylvania to testify against him.
Their complaints mirror the more recent charge: Baladi lured them into his shop, got them to bend over, then took advantage, they said.
Both of those cases, as well as a simple assault complaint filed against Baladi in Brick Township, were downgraded to offenses that were dismissed in Municipal Court.
“I am not going to vacate the plea today,” Guida said. “I’m going to proceed to sentencing.”
Whether prosecutors want to pursue the new allegations is up to them, he said.
Following his arrest last year, Baladi applied for Pre-trial Intervention, a special program that allows participants to clear their records if they stay out of trouble for a specified length of time. He was denied, however.
“Based on the facts of this case, the offense can hardly be considered a victimless crime,” wrote senior probation officer Michael Killeen.
The victim also requested that Baladi be denied PTI “not only for my protection but for other women that he encounters in the future,” Killeen added.
STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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