An ex-Belknap County sheriff’s deputy maintains he was wrongfully convicted of rape and did not coerce an inmate into sex, according to a defense brief filed in the state Supreme Court.
The attorney for Ernest Justin Blanchette details these arguments and more in a nearly 30-page brief required as part of the higher court appeal process. The defense’s brief was due Monday. Prosecutors have almost two months to respond.
Blanchette’s attorney, Brad Davis, says state law draws a clear distinction as it concerns Blanchette’s former employment that the lower court misinterpreted. Further, he notes the sexual interaction between Blanchette and the woman was consensual and not forced – a claim she backed under oath.
Davis argues that state law technically defines a rape through coercion as occurring when a defendant has direct supervision over the victim and the victim is incarcerated in a correctional facility “where the actor is employed.” Because Blanchette was “employed” by the county sheriff, rather than the prison, he should be exempt from the law, his lawyer states.
Blanchette was sentenced in May to 10 to 20 years in prison on one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault for having sex with an inmate during transport. That occurred at an abandoned home in Bedford in July 2015 when Blanchette was transporting the woman from a Belknap County courthouse to the Goffstown women’s prison.
Blanchette faces additional charges for similar alleged acts in Belknap County, which Davis previously said should be dismissed. He said in his brief that the trial court erred by considering those pending charges as part of the sentencing process, which he called prejudicial to Blanchette.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)