Man acquitted of sexual assault, convicted of lesser charge
STAMFORD — A jury has acquitted a Bridgeport man of felony sexual assault but convicted him on a related misdemeanor over accusations that he forced a fellow patient into a sexual act at a Westport psychiatric facility in 2016.
Mark DiPietro was found not guilty of firstdegree sexual assault, a class B felony that carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years. The jury did convict the 30-year-old of fourthdegree sexual assault, a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days in prison.
As DiPietro, his mother and attorney Frank Bevilacqua watched in a fourth-floor courtroom at the state Superior Court in Stamford on Monday afternoon, the jury foreman delivered the verdict following only a couple hours of deliberation.
Bevilacqua said DePietro and his family are “extremely happy” about the felony acquittal. He said the DiPietro family was willing to accept the fourth-degree sexual assault conviction, though DiPietro himself was disappointed at the result. Bevilacqua added that his client has maintained his innocence for the past eight years.
“He never wavered about that,” Bevilacqua said.
Echoing comments made during his closing arguments Monday morning, Bevilacqua said he believes that “whatever happened behind that door” on April 23, 2016, at the St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health Services campus in Westport was “consensual” in nature.
“I feel that she regretted what she did after the fact, but she knew what she was doing,” Bevilacqua claimed in the wake of the verdict. “I feel bad for her, and so does my client — he has no ill will toward her — but he did not want to be blamed for an act that she performed then later regretted.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Margaret Moscati, who tried the case, declined to comment on the verdict.
The case, which has been pending at the state Superior Court since August 2016, revolved around accusations made by an 18year-old in April 2016 that DiPietro sexually assaulted her while the two were staying at the St. Vincent’s Behavioral Health Services campus in Westport.
DiPietro had been civilly committed to the Westport facility ten days before the alleged incident, according to Bevilacqua.
During her closing arguments on Monday, Moscati recounted the woman’s account of the events of April 23, 2016, reminding them of her testimony earlier in the trial regarding a conversation with DiPietro about her poetry that led to sexual overtures and the alleged assault.
“What reason does (the complainant) have to lie? If (she) was afraid of getting in trouble or losing privileges, why would she report on herself? The evidence shows that no staff member saw the defendant or (the complainant) go into that room, and no staff member saw them leave, so why would she volunteer that information,” Moscati asked jurors. “What does (she) gain from all this, from having to come into this courtroom, being subjected to extensive cross-examination and describe in detail to a group of strangers the time she was physically pulled into a room and assaulted?”
In her arguments, Moscati drew jurors’ attention to the testimony from John White, a St. Vincent’s mental health worker, who described how the alleged victim in the case, a “bubbly, happy-go-lucky” person normally, seemed “sad” and different on the day she reported the sexual assault.
“It was like she was moving in slow motion,” Moscati said, quoting White’s description of the woman on the day of the alleged assault.
DiPietro was arrested in August 2016 on charges of first-degree and fourthdegree sexual assault following an investigation that began several months earlier.
According to his fourpage arrest affidavit, Westport police were called to the psychiatric hospital when the female patient told a nurse about the alleged assault.
The woman reportedly told police she tried to get away from DiPietro, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia, but he would not let her go.
DiPietro denied doing anything to the woman and at first claimed to police that he did not know her, according to reports. But police obtained the video showing the two sitting in the hallway of the hospital before he allegedly grabbed the woman by the wrist and pulled her into his room, the affidavit said.
Monday’s verdict marks the end of a case that sat dormant for years after DiPietro was repeatedly found unfit to stand trial.
DiPietro is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25.
While DiPietro has been held in custody longer than the maximum sentence for the crime he was convicted of Monday, he will likely not be released following his sentencing, as he remains civilly committed, according to Bevilacqua.