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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.
Forte, 79, found physically competent to be retried in 1987 child assault case
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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.
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BENNINGTON â A man accused of driving through kneeling protesters during a Black Lives Matter rally in Manchester last spring is resolving his criminal case through diversion.
Dustin Tobin, 29, of Pawlet, was charged with negligent vehicle operation and reckless endangerment, misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. He pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in August.
Manchester police alleged that on June 7 of last year, while a Black Lives Matter demonstration was taking place in the town roundabout, Tobin drove through kneeling protesters. No one was injured.
Less than 10 minutes earlier, witnesses reportedly told investigators, Tobin had held his middle finger out the window while driving around the roundabout twice.
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BENNINGTON â Two doctors said Tuesday that retrying Leonard Forte would endanger his already poor health â statements that the case victim heard during her first time back in a Bennington courtroom since Forteâs original trial in 1988.
Dr. Robert Lobel, a cardiologist with the University of Vermont Medical Center, said itâs âan incredibly bad ideaâ to ask 79-year-old Forte to travel back here from Florida given his various heart ailments.
Forte is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in Landgrove in 1987, after he retired as an investigator with New Yorkâs Suffolk County District Attorneyâs Office. He was convicted the following year on three counts of sexual assault, but the presiding judge ordered a new trial, saying the female prosecutor had prejudiced the jury by being too emotional.
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