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LANDGROVE â State police have charged a man with obstruction of justice, accusing him of lying about his health condition over a 22-year-period to evade prosecution to avoid facing charges he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl in Landgrove in 1987.
According to a Vermont State Police release, Leonard Forte, 79, has been cited to appear in Bennington Superior criminal court Wednesday to answer to two counts of obstruction of justice.
Forte has three pending charges of sexual assault. In 1988, he was found guilty on all charges by a Bennington County jury. He appealed the conviction, and the presiding judge ordered a new trial, saying the female prosecutor had prejudiced the jury by being too emotional.
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BENNINGTON â A man asking the court to dismiss his 30-year-old child sexual assault case because of his physical incapacity to stand trial is now requesting a mental competency evaluation.
Attorneys for Leonard Forte, 79, asked the court last week to order the Vermont Department of Mental Health to evaluate his mental competency. This came while Forte was in the midst of a three-part evidentiary hearing, where he presented evidence that he supposedly is too sick to be prosecuted on charges of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in Landgrove back in 1987.
Forte, a retired New York investigator during the alleged incident, was convicted at a Bennington County trial in 1988. But the presiding judge ordered a new trial, saying the female prosecutor had prejudiced the jury by being too emotional.