Raritan teen tried to blame porn for molesting woman
Also attacked women in two other incidents in Manville.
RARITAN BOROUGH - A state appellate court has rejected a teen's defense that he was traumatized by watching a pornographic movie two years before he molested a woman who was entering a gym with her three children.
The teen, identified in court papers only by the initials T.T. because of his age, lost the appeal arguing that he had been improperly ruled delinquent in connection with the April 1, 2013, incident.
The teen also was charged with attacking women in two other incidents at a CVS and in a pedestrian tunnel in Manville.
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If T.T. had been an adult, the court wrote, he would have been found guilty of fourth-degree sexual contact and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child. But because he was under 18, he was ruled a delinquent.
According to court papers, T.T., wearing a maroon hoodie, came up from behind the woman, grabbed her with both hands in the genital area and began "humping" her, the court wrote.
During questioning at Raritan Borough Police Headquarters with his father present, T.T. admitted that he had grabbed a woman near her stomach area and rubbed himself against her buttocks.
T.T. also said that when he first saw the woman, he remembered a porn film he had watched two years earlier.
Victim's children traumatized
The woman's two youngest children, age 7 and 4, froze while her 9-year-old yelled, "get off my mom" and pursued T.T. when he ran away.
At a hearing before the Family Court judge, the woman identified T.T. and said one of her children now views everyone wearing a hoodie as a "bad man."
The children, the woman said, do not want to go near the gym where the attack occurred.
On the Raritan charge, T.T. was continued on probation in the residential program and ordered to register under the state's Megan's Law because of the charge of endangering the welfare of a child.
The court rejected T.T.'s argument that the children had seen nothing and no harm had come to them. The court said that contention was "untethered to any evidence."
Other attacks
In addition to the Raritan incident, T.T. had been charged in a separate complaint with running behind a woman in the parking lot of CVS in Manville and grabbing her back pocket on March 20, 2013. When the woman screamed, he ran off.
A few months later, on June 15, 2013, T.T. approached a woman in a pedestrian tunnel in Manville, grabbed her around the waist and rubbed against her.
On those charges T.T. was placed on three years' probation and ordered to enter a residential program for teenagers who had committed sexual offenses, a program, the court wrote, that "he desperately needed."
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Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com