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Although a permanant legal U.S. resident, Jose Juarez-Roca isn’t an American citizen, so he will be deported once he completes his sentence, Superior Court Edward A. Jerejian said yesterday in Hackensack.
“Have you had a chance to consult with an immigration attorney, and are you prepared to plead guilty, knowing you risk deportation?” the judge asked him.
Juarez-Roca, through an interpreter, said he did and he was.
In a deal with prosecutors that avoids a trial, he pleaded guilty to a reduced second-degree charge of aggravated sexual assault, admitting that he touched the girl and penetrated her with his fingers several times during 2012.
“You could have been sentenced to as much as 20 years if you were convicted by a jury,” Jerejian told Juarez-Roca. “As a benefit of the plea bargain, the maximum sentence you can receive is eight years.”
Under the No Early Release Act, he must serve 85% of his sentence — roughly six years and 8 months — before he is eligible for parole. He then would be placed in the custody of federal officials for deportation proceedings.
Juarez-Roca will be evaluated at the state Diagnostic and Treatment Center in and may serve his sentence there if he is deemed a “repetitive and compulsive” sex offender and cooperates with treatment.
If not, he goes into general population at a state prison.
Jerejian set sentencing for April 14.
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
From left: Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Marybel Mercado Ramirez, defense attorney Gail Hargrove, Jose Juarez-Roca in court yesterday
(STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
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