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FOLLOWING JUSTICES’ ORDER FOR A NEW TRIAL
Woman sent to jail for sex abuse released
Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman has ordered the release of a 32-year-old woman whom he sentenced in 2010 to eight years in prison for sex abuse of a minor in the first degree.
In an order on Wednesday, Wiseman ordered the release of Geraldine Marie Sanchez from the Department of Corrections after the CNMI Supreme Court vacated her conviction.
On Monday, the Supreme Court set aside the conviction and sent the matter back to the Superior Court for a new trial.
The justices found that Wiseman mistakenly instructed the jury that the sexual abuse of a minor did not have to be committed by a certain date because it violated the age requirements in the relevant statutes.
With the high court’s opinion, assistant public defender Eden Schwartz, counsel for Sanchez, immediately filed a motion for an order releasing Sanchez from custody.
Schwartz said that if the government decides to pursue a new trial, the court should release Sanchez on an unsecured appearance bond with conditions that will ensure her presence in court.
According to court records, Sanchez was arrested in December 2009 after the boy’s mother learned from neighbors that Sanchez had sex with her son when he was just 15 years old.
Sanchez was then a neighbor and friend of the victim’s family.
In July 2010, a jury found Sanchez guilty of one count each of sex abuse of a minor in the first and second degrees, but not guilty on the charge of sex abuse of a minor in the 4th degree.
In September 2010, Wiseman sentenced Sanchez to eight years in prison without parole. She went to prison on Oct. 6, 2010.
Sanchez, through counsel, then appealed to the high court.
