Judge asked to reconsider sentence of former congressional aide

READING >> The state attorney general’s office is asking a Berks County judge to reconsider her sentence in the case of a former congressional aide convicted of sexual assault.

Common Pleas Court Judge Madelyn S. Fudeman decided Monday to spare 57-year-old Timothy Smith a jail term on the conviction of misdemeanor indecent assault of another man in 2009, noting that he must register as a sexual offender for 15 years.

Published reports state that the attorney general’s office has asked Fudeman to reconsider her sentencing and instead order prison or probation for Smith, citing the crime’s severity and the need for public protection and rehabilitation.

A 21-year-old man said he had been drinking at Smith’s Muhlenberg Township home but awoke to find Smith sexually assaulting him. Jurors deadlocked on a felony charge. Prosecutors are mulling a retrial on that charge.