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Teen sex assault charges detailed against Leonia repeat offender

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Leonia construction worker with a history of sex crimes stuck his fingers into a 16-year-old girl’s vagina and put her hand on his penis in his van after offering her a ride this summer, a grand jury indictment returned in Hackensack today charges.

Photo Credit: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

Wilfredo Arias, 49, remained free on $250,000 bail, posted two weeks after his July 3 arrest.

Authorities at the time said the girl called 911 after she managed to break free while Arias was molesting her in his vehicle.

The five-count indictment handed up today in Hackensack elaborates.

Arias, it says, committed sexual assault by “placing his fingers in [the girl’s] vaginal labia through physical force or coercion,” with “no severe personal injury.

It says he also “[placed] her hand on his penis,” also through “physical force or coercion,” and that he pressed his groin against hers, “rubbing or grinding.”

Included with the one assault and three sexual contact charges are a count of child endangerment.

Arias previously avoided prison time and Megan’s Law registration when New Jersey’s highest court overturned his 2002 conviction on sex assault charges, in a case that set a standard for how jurors are selected, CLIFFVIEW PILOT exclusively reported two months ago.

A judge in Hackensack sentenced Arias to six years in state prison after jurors convicted him of of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old Little Ferry girl.

But the state Supreme Court overturned the conviction in early 2005, sending it back to Hackensack for retrial, because Arias wasn’t allowed to participate in interviews of potential jurors.

He then took a plea instead.

Arias benefitted from another downgraded plea deal three years ago — again keeping him from Megan’s Law registration — after being charged with sexually assaulting a 7-year old Cliffside Park girl.

After completing his sentence on April 8, Arias was arrested on the Fourth of July after the Leonia teen said he molested her when she accepted a ride in his van.

Making it all possible: a procedural error. READ MORE….

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

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