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Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 9/17/07 Section: News
McIntosh alleges prosecution reneged on plea deal
Former prof may rescind no-contest plea in 2002 sexual assault after court forced resentencing
Emily Babay
Prosecutors continue efforts to send former Penn professor Tracy McIntosh to prison, but McIntosh's lawyers now argue that a previous backroom deal proposed by the case's former prosecutor should keep him from serving time.
McIntosh, 54, is a former Neurosurgery professor who pleaded no contest to the Sept. 6, 2002, sexual assault of his college roommate's niece, a 23-year-old woman who was about to enter Penn's veterinary school.
At a hearing Friday in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Joel Trigiani, one of McIntosh's lawyers, asserted that an off-the-record, in-chambers deal had been made between McIntosh's former defense lawyers, former prosecutor Gina Maisto Smith and Common Pleas Judge Rayford Means.
That deal, Trigiani said, stated that McIntosh would stay out of prison in exchange for admitting to the assault, and Trigiani argued that the case's new judge, Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe, should reimpose the house-arrest sentence originally given to McIntosh.
The deal was purportedly made when McIntosh entered his no-contest plea on Dec. 1, 2004.
Trigiani requested a hearing in which he planned to call as witnesses former McIntosh lawyers Thomas Bergstrom and Arthur Donato and Judge Means to testify that the deal existed.
Dembe denied the request at Friday's hearing. She acknowledged that lawyers may have reached "some sort of informal understanding with the judge" but added that "the record is clear that there is no formal agreement."
Dembe - who is handling the sentencing after Means recused himself from the case Sept. 7 - said McIntosh can now either prepare for his court-mandated resentencing or withdraw his plea and go to trial.
The defense will inform Dembe of its decision at another hearing scheduled for Sept. 28.
McIntosh appeared in court Friday but did not speak.
Prosecutors deny that any plea-bargain agreement was made.
"There simply was no deal," Assistant District Attorney Richard DeSipio said. He also refuted Trigiani's assertion that "deals are made all the time."
McIntosh, 54, is a former Neurosurgery professor who pleaded no contest to the Sept. 6, 2002, sexual assault of his college roommate's niece, a 23-year-old woman who was about to enter Penn's veterinary school.
At a hearing Friday in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Joel Trigiani, one of McIntosh's lawyers, asserted that an off-the-record, in-chambers deal had been made between McIntosh's former defense lawyers, former prosecutor Gina Maisto Smith and Common Pleas Judge Rayford Means.
That deal, Trigiani said, stated that McIntosh would stay out of prison in exchange for admitting to the assault, and Trigiani argued that the case's new judge, Common Pleas Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe, should reimpose the house-arrest sentence originally given to McIntosh.
The deal was purportedly made when McIntosh entered his no-contest plea on Dec. 1, 2004.
Trigiani requested a hearing in which he planned to call as witnesses former McIntosh lawyers Thomas Bergstrom and Arthur Donato and Judge Means to testify that the deal existed.
Dembe denied the request at Friday's hearing. She acknowledged that lawyers may have reached "some sort of informal understanding with the judge" but added that "the record is clear that there is no formal agreement."
Dembe - who is handling the sentencing after Means recused himself from the case Sept. 7 - said McIntosh can now either prepare for his court-mandated resentencing or withdraw his plea and go to trial.
The defense will inform Dembe of its decision at another hearing scheduled for Sept. 28.
McIntosh appeared in court Friday but did not speak.
Prosecutors deny that any plea-bargain agreement was made.
"There simply was no deal," Assistant District Attorney Richard DeSipio said. He also refuted Trigiani's assertion that "deals are made all the time."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Alum (lawyer)
posted 9/17/07 @ 8:45 AM EST
It would be one hell of an outcome if he withdrew his plea and was acquitted. The resulting philosophical speculation- would that be justice?- presents a classic legal conundrum. (Continued…)
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