Earlier this month, Bergen County Superior Court jurors convicted a Fair Lawn man of violently sodomizing his former fianc with a steel-toed boot. However, the jury cleared the man of more serious rape and kidnapping charges.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that George Sanchez brutally attacked his former fianc after learning that she had received a text message from an old boyfriend. Mr. Sanchez’s lawyer disputed this contention, saying that a fight broke out when Mr. Sanchez broke off the couple’s engagement and asked the woman to move out of the couple’s home.
During the victim’s testimony at trial, she stated that Mr. Sanchez had handcuffed her in the bedroom. Under cross-examination, Mr. Sanchez admitted that he works as a bounty hunter and is therefore skilled in the use of handcuffs.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Sanchez hit the victim in the head with a steel-toed boot. Prosecutors also contended that Mr. Sanchez repeatedly hit and choked the victim while she was handcuffed.
The victim testified that Mr. Sanchez confined her for approximately 20 hours.
In the most shocking allegation, prosecutors contended that Mr. Sanchez took the steel-toed boot and used it to try to rape the victim.
Among the problems faced by the prosecution in this case was a lack of forensic evidence. None of the samples taken from Mr. Sanchez’s home were analyzed for DNA evidence. Additionally, no medical report was submitted as evidence. Moreover, when the victim went to the hospital for treatment a few days after the attack, she refused a rape test.
Ultimately, jurors convicted Mr. Sanchez of false imprisonment but found him not guilty of the more serious kidnapping charge. Additionally, jurors found Mr. Sanchez guilty of aggravated sexual contact but not guilty of aggravated sexual assault.
On the aggravated sexual contact charge, Mr. Sanchez could face up to five (5) years in New Jersey State Prison. As set forth by N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3a, a person is guilty of aggravated sexual contact if he uses physical force to commit an act of sexual contact with the victim and causes severe personal injury to the victim.
Had Mr. Sanchez been convicted of all the charges he faced, he could have been looking at up to 40 years in New Jersey State Prison.
After trial, Mr. Sanchez was returned to the Bergen County Jail, where he has remained the past year and a half in lieu of $300,000.00 bail. Mr. Sanchez will return to the Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack for sentencing on October 11.
For more information about this case, see the CliffviewPilot.com article entitled “Mixed Verdict in Fair Lawn Rape Trial.”
