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Richard Rhode, 42, was to report directly to the Megan’s Law section of the probation department after his release after two years behind bars, a judge in Hackensack said on Friday.
The victim and her family decided against attending the sentencing. They submitted an impact statement, however, in which the girl said she was violated by a person of trust.
“All she can do is cry,” Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Kristin DeMarco told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi.
Rhode originally was charged with touching the girl’s vagina, breasts and buttocks and grinding his groin area against her over a 10-month period from October 2009 to August 2010.
The girl, whom he knew, was 13 and 14 when the incidents occurred, authorities said. She told her mother in 2012 and Rhode was arrested.
He has remained held on $750,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail since then, earning 790 days of jail credit.
In return for Rhode’s guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed four counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact.
Rhode must pay $490 in restitution to the state Violent Crimes Compensation Board for counseling for his victim and will remain on lifelong parole supervision as a registered Megan’s Law sex offender.
He also must provide a DNA sample for the national sex offender database and is subject to Nicole’s Law prohibiting him from ever again contacting the victim or her family.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Kristin DeMarco, defense attorney Milagros Camacho, Richard Rhode (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
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