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“It’s an active investigation,” Hackensack attorney Peter Koulikourdis told Daily Voice. “But when it’s over, I'll have more to say.”
His now-former client, 21-year-old Quashawn Nowlin, previously pleaded guilty to forcing the girl to give him oral sex. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to a prison sentence that wouldn't make him eligible for parole for six years and eight months.
Nowlin withdrew the plea in September, however, after the girl's mother said she'd rather see him get counseling.
Superior Court Judge Margaret M. Foti immediately put the case back on track for a trial -- but on Oct. 13 said she had no choice but to delay the proceedings amid the bribery allegation.
Nowlin, meanwhile, has a new attorney, Irene McFarlane.
McFarlane said Nowlin has “an important decision to make,” and that she intends to have him undergo a mental evaluation.
“He doesn’t seem to fully understand everything going on around him and the serious consequences,” she told the judge. He responds in a "very childlike manner," McFarlane said.
Prosecutors said Nowlin was 19 when he touched and kissed the girl's breasts and induced her into giving him oral sex. A grand jury in Hackensack indicted him last December on charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual contact and impairing the morals of a minor.
He remained held on $200,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.
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