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Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Kristin DeMarco (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
The jurors found Luis Lopez, 53, not guilty of charges relating to an Oct. 1, 2012 incident, when the alleged victim was 12.
They couldn’t resolve counts from a second alleged incident, on Dec. 5, 2012, after she’d turned 13.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Kristin DeMarco, after talking with the girl, said she will retry Lopez on the remaining counts.
Although gratified by the not-guilty findings, defense attorney William Gonzalez said he and Lopez were disappointed in the mixed verdict.
The girl testified during the trial that she was sitting on a couch beside Lopez watching a horror film with a group of family members when she felt his hand rubbing her vagina under the blanket. She said she squirmed and tried to move away from him.
Another incident followed months later in which she said Lopez against rubbed her vagina and used his foot to rub his penis after he found her laying on a couch, the girl said. She then told a guidance counselor.
Others present the night of the first alleged incident testified that the lights were on the entire evening and there was no blanket.
The second assault occurred, the girl said, several months later when she was lying on the couch. Lopez came into the room, sat down, and placed her foot on his penis while also rubbing her vagina with his hands, she said.
Gonzalez said the case was “lacking facts” because it was based solely on her testimony.
“There was no testimony of detectives, no DNA, no physical evidence,” Gonzalez told jurors last week. “Two years for this case to come to trial, and not one of the detectives ever spoke to the witnesses we put before you.
“You would think they would go to the crime scene, look at that living room,” the defense lawyer said. “They didn’t interview family members, or anyone at school. No one from the hospital testified as to what she told them about this incident.”
DeMarco, in turn, said that the account given by the girl — who turned 15 a month ago — was the only one that mattered.
“It wasn’t a whodunit,” she said. “We knew who did it. There wasn’t a need to present a parade of police witnesses to testify to information that was largely irrelevant. There were no issues that required CSI evidence.
“We knew who it was — she told us. The fact witness, the victim, told us.”
Lopez was acquitted of first -degree aggravated sexual assault, second -degree sexual assault, and third -degree child endangerment.
The charges in the new trial: second -degree sexual assault by placing his fingers in the victim’s vaginal labia; sexual contact by rubbing the victim’s vagina with his hands; sexual contact by placing the victim’s foot on his penis to rub it; and sexual conduct to impair or debauch the morals of a child — all third and fourth -degree charges.
Lopez rejected a plea offer of eight years in prison in June — with parole after six years and nine months — insisting that he wouldn’t agree to any deal that required him to register and report as a Megan’s Law sex offender for life.
Defense attorney William Gonzalez, Luis E. Lopez (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
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