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Man in rape case gets 90-day sentence for perjury
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Posted on Nov 20 2011
A man who was found guilty in September of raping an intoxicated woman at a Tinian cemetery pleaded guilty last week to perjury for lying in his testimony.
Joseph Ray Cruz Arriola Jr. pleaded guilty to a count of perjury as part of a plea deal with the government.
Superior Court associate judge David A. Wiseman sentenced the 21-year-old Arriola to six months in prison, all suspended except for 90 days.
Wiseman said the 90-day prison term shall run concurrently with the sentence in the sexual assault case.
The judge said that sentencing shall be deferred until the sentencing in the sexual assault case. Arriola has yet to be sentenced in the sexual assault conviction.
This means that Arriola will serve the 90-day sentence in the perjury case within the prison term that will be imposed in the sexual assault matter.
Arriola was also ordered to pay a $100 fine, $100 court assessment fee, plus probation fee.
The plea agreement stated that on Dec. 2, 2010 on Tinian, Arriola testified under oath that he has never committed theft and that he did not participate in the sexual assault on the victim.
On Sept. 20, 2011, Wiseman determined that the government was able to provide enough evidence to convict Arriola of sexual assault in the third degree—a criminal offense that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Wiseman conducted the bench trial on Tinian. A week before the trial, the judge granted the Office of the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss the charges of kidnapping and first degree sexual assault.
Assistant attorney general Russell H. Lorfing, who prosecuted the case, filed an amended information to charge Arriola with only one count of sexual assault in the third degree.
In December 2010, the Tinian Superior Court jury handed down a not-guilty verdict against Arriola’s co-defendant, 30-year-old Kurt B. King, who was charged with kidnapping and rape.
The victim alleged that she and her friends had been drinking at a club in December 2009 when King grabbed her and, together with Arriola, brought her to the cemetery where they raped her.
