CVP EXCLUSIVE: A judge in Hackensack today rejected the guilty plea of a Leonia construction worker accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl while giving her a ride in his truck last summer when the defendant insisted that the girl came on to him.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Natalie Candela (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)
Wilfredo Arias, 49, said he thought that the teen “was attracted to me” based on “the way she came on to me and rubbed up against me during the day.”
Having heard enough, an exasperated Superior Court Judge James J. Guida refused Arias’s guilty pleas to one count each of sexual assault of a minor and child endangerment.
“We pick a jury tomorrow morning,” he said.
Defense attorney Frank Lucianna tried to delay, saying that he was waiting for evidence.
However, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Natalie Candela said she’d provided everything and was ready to proceed.
Candela agreed to a plea deal that would have sent Arias to state prison for six years — five years and two months of which he would have had to serve before being eligible for parole. A year of that is for being arrested while on probation for a sex crime.
He was also to be placed on the Megan’s Law sex offender registry, be subjected to the requirements of Nicole’s Law permanently banning contact with the girl or her family and remain on parole supervision for life.
Guida had explained “all the collateral consequences of the plea” and Arias had admitted is guilt when he suddenly claimed that the girl “was attracted” to him.
Superior Court Judge James J. Guida (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)
Arias — who has remained free on $250,000 bail — told the judge he was outside the house on July 3, 2014 when the girl emerged from a party given by his step-daughter and he offered her a ride home.
Once in the truck, he said, he first put her hand on his penis and then lifted up her dress.
From there, Arias’ description of the crime became murky.
First, he said, he only put his hand on her underwear, then he admitted putting it under her clothes and into her vagina.
When he put his hand into her pants, he said, she jumped out of the truck. He said he got out, put his arms around her, and rubbed up against her on the front porch of his house.
Then the girl ran home down the street.
Arias said he told police he “made a big mistake,” because he thought she was attracted to him.
If convicted of all charges, he could face 12 to 15 years in prison.
The case is Arias’ fourth prosecution and the third for a sex offense in the past 15 years.
He previously avoided prison time and Megan’s Law registration when New Jersey’s highest court overturned his 2002 conviction of of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old Little Ferry girl two years earlier he Arias wasn’t allowed to participate in interviews of potential jurors.
The case set a standard for how jurors are selected (SEE: Previous case of Leonia man now charged in sex assault on girl, 16, prompted changes in jury selection).
Arias was allowed to then plead guilty to a reduced charge of lewdness in 2005.
He benefitted from another downgraded plea deal four years ago — again keeping him from Megan’s Law registration — after being charged with sexually assaulting a 7-year old Cliffside Park girl.
Arias again pleaded guilty to a reduced charge — lewdness observed by a child under the age of 13 — and was sentenced to 180 days in the Bergen County Jail and three years probation.
Arias finished the jail sentence last April before being arrested in Leonia three months later — violating his probation in the process.
Defense attorney Frank Lucianna, Arias (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)
