By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
TRENTON Accused child molester Darren Maglione, of Robbinsville, had his bail reinstated Tuesday after his lawyer convinced a judge there was no proof her client had stalked the alleged victim in the case or violated a restraining order.
Mr. Maglione, 40, who was charged last year with engaging in sexual conduct with a 12-year-old Robbinsville girl in 2009, was arrested again at his Windswept Drive home May 19. Prosecutors said that five hours earlier he had followed the girl, now 14, with his Porsche SUV as she jogged on Mercer Street in Hamilton and yelled out his window “I love you” and “does this mean we’re over?”
Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier had granted an emergency request from prosecutors to revoke Mr. Maglione’s $300,000 bail late Friday afternoon (May 20) without defense lawyer Robin Lord present in the courtroom. In reversing that action Tuesday and reinstating Mr. Maglione’s bail, Judge Billmeier admitted that he had been “distracted” by his heavy caseload and the late hour.
”Had the court not been distracted, perhaps I would have taken more time and realized that Ms. Lord did not have proper notice and the court should have reached out for her,” Judge Billmeier said.
Ms. Lord argued Tuesday that Mr. Maglione’s bail should be reinstated because the prosecution had “failed miserably” to meet its burden of providing clear and convincing proof that Mr. Maglione had violated the no-contact restraining order. The child’s statement to police describing the alleged incident was not a sworn affidavit, she said, and the prosecution’s decision not to have the child come to court to testify prevented the defense from questioning her.
The defense attorney also told the court that it was the alleged victim and her family who are stalking Mr. Maglione, not the other way around. The child’s family knows Mr. Maglione visits one of his clients, a travel agency near the intersection of Nottingham Way and Mercer Street in Hamilton, several times a week and the fact that the girl was jogging in that area shows she was stalking him, Ms. Lord said.
Assistant Prosecutor Brian McCauley appeared incredulous at this statement, calling it “the most insane argument I have ever heard.”
”The notion that (the alleged victim) runs this route in order to ensnare Mr. Maglione is ridiculous,” Mr. McCauley said. “How would she know exactly when he’s driving down to do a service call to this business? She would have to know that, skedaddle down there … and get all the way to that intersection precisely at the time that he shows up there in an attempt to ensnare him.”
Mr. McCauley asked the judge to continue the revocation of Mr. Maglione’s bail because there had been “an almost continuous course of conduct where this man is following and appearing almost everywhere this little girl goes and it happened again on Thursday and generated a complaint of stalking and harassing.”
The assistant prosecutor said the investigation of Mr. Maglione began in January 2010 after an off-duty sheriff’s officer called police to report that he’d seen Mr. Maglione taking the girl into a wooded area of a park.
Police executed a search warrant inside Mr. Maglione’s Robbinsville home and he was subsequently charged with computer-related theft and stalking for allegedly installing spyware on the child’s computer. The computer software was capable of capturing keystrokes, taking photographs and recording sound, according to a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office.
A two-count indictment was returned against Mr. Maglione in September 2010 on the stalking and computer-related theft charges and he is still awaiting trial after posting $5,000 bail in that case.
Two months later, in November 2010, Mr. Maglione was charged with having engaged in sexual conduct with the same victim at various times and locations over a six-month period in 2009 when she was 12. He was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault, one count of sexual assault, and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
Mr. Maglione posted $300,000 bail in connection with those charges. That case has not yet been presented to a grand jury, but Mr. McCauley indicated in court Tuesday that it would be happening next month.
The restraining order that Mr. Maglione is accused of violating was issued in February 2011 after the prosecutor’s office claimed he was trying to contact the girl on the Internet using fake screen names on social networking websites. Judge Billmeier’s order prohibited Mr. Maglione from having any personal, written or electronic contact with the girl. He also was barred from going near her home or school, or causing others to follow or harass her.
Since the alleged victim and Mr. Maglione live only about a mile apart from each other in Robbinsville near the Hamilton border, the two are bound to inadvertently cross paths from time to time, Ms. Lord maintained. She said that Mr. Maglione did not speak to the girl when he saw her on Mercer Street in Hamilton so he did not violate the terms of the no-contact restraining order.
Based on the girl’s account that he followed her in his car and yelled to her, Mr. Maglione was charged by Hamilton police with contempt of court for allegedly violating a restraining order, harassment and stalking.
Mr. McCauley said Tuesday that the prosecutor’s office had expected Mr. Maglione to be held without bail after his most recent arrest until Judge Billmeier could schedule a hearing on whether the defendant had violated the restraining order. However, unbeknownst to the prosecutor’s office, a different judge hearing emergent matters after normal business hours the night of May 19 set bail on the latest charges at $100,000. Mr. Maglione posted bail and was released.
When the prosecutor’s office realized what had happened the next day, it brought an emergent motion before Judge Billmeier to revoke the $300,000 bail he had set for Mr. Maglione last November on the sexual assault charges.
After agreeing to revoke Mr. Maglione’s bail Friday evening, Judge Billmeier said he received a “flurry of e-mails” from both sides, prompting him to revisit the matter on Tuesday with both the defense and prosecution present.
”The state has failed to meet its burden of clear and convincing evidence; that’s a difficult burden to meet especially when they don’t call any witnesses,” Judge Billmeier ruled at the end of a two-hour hearing.
”You’re certainly not required to produce the alleged victim,” the judge told the assistant prosecutor. “All I’m trying to point out is that I think when you have such a burden of proof … it’s going to be difficult to meet that burden unless you produce witnesses with personal knowledge of the alleged misconduct.”
Mr. McCauley said afterward he did not bring the child to court on Tuesday because of her age and the nature of the allegations.
”I did not want to put her through that,” Mr. McCauley said. When asked if the child would testify if the matter were to come to trial, he said she would.
Mr. Maglione, who appeared in court unshaven, handcuffed and wearing the standard orange jumpsuit issued to all inmates, was returned to the county jail after the court proceedings but was expected to be released Tuesday night.

