Prosecutors in the trial against former Belknap County sheriff’s deputy Ernest Justin Blanchette can tell jurors about two earlier encounters he had with the inmate he allegedly raped last July while driving her back to prison, a judge in Manchester has ruled.

In an order issued Monday, Judge Gillian Abramson said Blanchette’s behavior during the earlier encounters “is relevant to show defendant’s intent and plan to use his position of authority to ‘subtly persuade’ (the inmate) into the sex” at issue in this case. Opening arguments are set to begin today.

Blanchette’s attorney had objected to the request, arguing in part that it should be inadmissible because the behavior alleged hasn’t been proven. Blanchette, 36, faces several felonies in Belknap County, two of which involve the earlier encounters. He remains out on bail and has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Prosecutors claim Blanchette let the inmate smoke cigarettes and use his phone during earlier transports, seemingly in exchange for sexual activity. She told police he initiated sex during the first trip, in September 2014, and nearly did so again later that year but was interrupted by a road accident.

During the last encounter, on July 2 of last year, Blanchette allegedly initiated sex with the woman and then again let her smoke and use his phone.

Information about outside cases is often prohibited at trial, as it can prejudice jurors against the immediate allegations. But Abramson said the pattern Blanchette purportedly established in 2014, granting the inmate certain privileges unavailable in prison, could show he “made it difficult for (her) to reject his sexual advances during” the July 2 encounter.

Abramson, however, rejected the assertion that all three encounters constituted a “single criminal episode,” as prosecutors put it in a motion last week. And she said she would instruct the jury that it can’t consider those previous encounters as evidence of guilt in this case.

In addition to the felony he faces at trial this week, Blanchette is charged with nine other counts of sexual assault and victimization involving at least four prisoners, all in Belknap County.

(Jeremy Blackman can be reached at 369-3319, jblackman@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JBlackmanCM.)