By Marci Piltz
Record-Courier staff writer
A 37-year-old man imprisoned since October for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl has been ordered released from prison after an appellate court ruled the man's trial was not held quickly enough.
Christopher D. Ange, whose address is listed as Louisville, Ohio, was convicted in October on two counts of gross sexual imposition, both third-degree felonies, and sentenced to five years in prison by Portage County Common Pleas Judge Laurie Pittman.
The 11th District Court of Appeals in Warren recently overturned that conviction and ordered Ange released from prison after finding more than the 270 days allotted by law between a person's arrest and trial had passed before the Oct. 16 trial began.
"Mindful as we are of the extremely serious nature of the crimes (Ange) committed against (the victim), we nevertheless have to reverse (Ange's) conviction due to the violation of (Ange's) constitutional and statutory right to a speedy trial," the appellate court's decision said.
Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci said Friday he does not intend to appeal the ruling.
"We can't dispute ... In fact we conceded at oral arguments on the case that the original trial date was on time, but after the court ruled on a motion and reset the date for October time was up. We can count, and we won't file a frivolous appeal when the facts are the facts."
All defendants are guaranteed the right to a speedy trial by the U.S. Constitution as well as Ohio law.
Vigluicci said the time provision is rarely an issue because most defendants sign a waiver to a speedy trial, often at their initial arraignment hearing.
"There may have been an assumption that he had done that, but in fact he had not," Vigluicci said.
In addition, he explained, each time a motion is filed in a case, the 270 day time frame is suspended until a judge rules on that motion, Vigluicci said.
"This was a complicated case from the beginning," he said. "He was indicted in January 2006 and had moved to Florida, so we didn't locate and arrest him until May. Then he had to be extradited back here in June, and then all these motions began to be filed."
At the date of Ange's trial, Aug. 16, Ange filed a motion for dismissal arguing the time limit for a speedy trial already had expired. Pittman heard the motion on Sept. 10, ruled against it on Sept. 11, and then reset the matter for trial on Oct. 17, Vigluicci said.
"As it turns out, the date the trial was reset for was outside of the time limit," he said. "The scheduling just got out of whack. It's a technicality, an extremely rare one, because the court and the prosecutor's office is very meticulous in watching these deadlines."
As of Friday, Ange was still incarcerated at Belmont Correctional Institute but is expected to be released soon.