Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Ex-lawyer wants rape conviction tossed
NORRISTOWN >> One week before he’s to be sentenced, the former Norristown lawyer convicted of raping an unconscious female client has asked a judge to throw out the conviction.
Vincent A. Cirillo Jr., through his lawyer, filed papers in Montgomery County Court seeking “extraordinary relief” from a judge, specifically asking the judge to void the conviction and to order a new trial due to alleged “errors” and the “insufficiency of the evidence.”
“The conviction for each of the crimes was against the weight of the evidence,” defense lawyer Nino V. Tinari wrote on behalf of Cirillo.
Additionally, Tinari claims evidentiary photographs shown to the jury during the trial were unfairly prejudicial.
Cirillo, 57, was convicted by a jury in February of charges of rape of an unconscious person, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with an unconscious person, sexual assault and unsworn falsification to authorities in connection with his assault of an impaired female client at the woman’s West Norriton residence on Aug. 3, 2015.
Judge Steven T. O’Neill has scheduled Cirillo’s sentencing hearing for May. 8. It is unclear if the judge will hold a hearing on Cirillo’s request to set aside the conviction before the sentencing hearing commences.
In the meantime, Cirillo remains in the county jail without bail while awaiting sentencing.
Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan, who leads the district attorney’s sex crimes prosecution unit, is handling the case.
Cirillo, who listed addresses along Maplecrest Avenue in Lower Merion and along Hampden Avenue in Narberth, is well-known in the county legal community. Cirillo is the son of the late Vincent A. Cirillo, a former Lower Merion commissioner, county prosecutor and judge who went on to be president judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court from 1986 to 1990. The elder Cirillo retired from the state bench in 1997 and died at the age of 72 in November 2000.
An investigation of Cirillo began Aug. 6, 2015, when a 22-year-old woman reported to West Norriton police that she was raped by Cirillo on Aug. 3 in her township residence where Cirillo met her for legal consultation and after alcohol was consumed, according to an arrest affidavit filed by West Norriton Detective Sgt. Michael McGettigan.
The woman claimed when she was alone in the residence with Cirillo she “blacked out” about 9 p.m.
“She had no memory of what happened for the remainder of the night. Although she had no specific recollection, she suspected she may have been sexually assaulted by Cirillo after blacking out,” McGettigan alleged in the arrest affidavit. “The victim stated to investigators that she did not consent to any sexual contact with Cirillo.”
The woman, testimony revealed, communicated with Cirillo by phone and text messages in the days following the incident.
“The victim stated that it was during these communications that Cirillo acknowledged that he and the victim had sex,” McGettigan wrote in court papers.
During the investigation, with the knowledge of detectives, the woman arranged to meet with Cirillo at her residence on Aug. 8. The conversation Cirillo had with the woman while alone with her inside the residence was successfully intercepted and recorded by detectives.
During the intercepted conversation, Cirillo told the woman he helped her to her bedroom and “repeatedly confirmed he had engaged in sexual intercourse with the victim” and assured her he was careful to avoid pregnancy and that he did not have any sexually transmitted diseases, McGettigan alleged.
Jurors heard the tape recorded conversation during the trial.
When confronted by detectives, Cirillo admitted to performing a sex act on the “highly intoxicated, semiconscious” woman in her bed. However, contrary to what he said during the recorded conversation, Cirillo denied having intercourse with the woman.