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Jose Elmer Enriquez will be sentenced to a plea-bargained 12 years in state prison, more than 10 years of which he must serve before he’ll be eligible for parole.
Enriquez has remained jailed since he was arrested in July 2020 following an investigation by Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes’s Special Victims Unit.
Alerted by Paterson police, the unit investigators interviewed the child and various witnesses and determined that the youngster had been sexually abused between August 2014 and November 2017, Valdes said on Thursday, July 6.
Rather than risk the potential outcome of a trial, the 4-foot-8-inch, 130-pound Enriquez took a deal from Passaic County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Simsen, pleading guilty to two counts of sexual assault in exchange for the recommended 12-year prison stretch.
He'll also be subject to parole supervision for life and must register as a Megan’s Law offender, under the terms of the deal.
Superior Court Judge Imre Karaszegi scheduled sentencing for Nov. 6 in Paterson. Enriquez will remain held in the Bergen County Jail until then.
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