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Jose Centeno STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia
Jose Centeno had agreed to a five-year state prison sentence but instructed an interpreter in Spanish to deliver a message to Superior Court Judge James J. Guida in court on Friday.
“I am innocent,” the wheelchair-bound Centeno said. “Tell him.”
His lawyer, for one, was surprised.
“He has not expressed to me that he wants to withdraw his plea,” defense attorney Ednin Martinez told the judge. “I asked him a few minutes ago, and he said he would like to go forward with the plea agreement.”
During an interview the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center at Avenel, Centeno contended that he was set up by the victim’s father because he’d stiffed him on a $10,000 loan.
The Avenel investigator deemed him an antisocial personality who “engages in opportunistic and exploitative behavior,” the judge said.
Martinez told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that she thoroughly investigated Centeno’s allegation and “there was no evidence of any loan.”
Guida set a Jan. 5 court date to hear and consider a motion for Centeno to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial. He will have to be represented by a different public defender, the judge said.
Centeno, who police said was carrying a knife when they arrested him in February 2013, remained held on $350,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault, endangerment and weapons possession.
Jose Centeno, defense attorney Ednin Martinez (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia)
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