New Case Ordered For Convicted Child Rapist
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Supreme Court is ordering a new trial for a convicted child rapist, saying his request to represent himself should have been honored.
The court by a 3-2 margin reversed multiple sex assault convictions against 40-year-old Robert Towle of Berlin. Towle was convicted of multiple sex assaults during the course of two years on a male child who was then ages 11-13.
Before Towle's trial was due to begin in 2009, he told a Coos County judge he had concerns about whether his lawyer, who had just been elected mayor of Somersworth, would try to sink his case. When the judge declined to remove Attorney Lincoln Soldati from the case, Towle said he wanted to represent himself.
The court says Towle had a constitutional right to represent himself.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
