Samuel Caruthers, 44, of Mountain Lakes, pleaded not guilty this past March to charges of aggravated assault and child endangerment.
VERNON -- The case against the Morris County anesthesiologist accused of attacking a 12-year-old boy in an apparent "ski rage incident" at Mountain Creek in February will head to a grand jury.
Samuel Caruthers, 44, of Mountain Lakes, pleaded not guilty this past March to charges of second-degree aggravated assault and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly punching the boy in the mouth and striking him with the end of a ski pole. Police have said the boy was visibly injured when officers arrived at the scene.
Caruthers was skiing with his own child at Mountain Creek ski resort on Feb. 14 when the boy fell into them, prompting the assault, police have said.
Judge William McGovern, sitting in Sussex County Superior Court in Newton, ordered Caruthers' case on Monday to receive grand jury review.
The alleged attack this past February isn't the first time Caruthers has been charged with assault.
According to records obtained by NJ Advance Media, Caruthers served three years of probation after he allegedly assaulted a man walking his Golden Retriever in Frederick, Md. on May 8, 2010.
Records obtained by NJ Advance Media show Caruthers accepted a guilty disposition in Aug. 2010 for second-degree assault, which is a misdemeanor in Maryland, and he received a suspended sentence of 18 days and a three-year term of unsupervised probation. He was later permitted to expunge his name from the case.
Maryland, unlike New Jersey, doesn't permit the expungement of felony convictions. It does, however, permit the expungement of charges in certain circumstances such as if a person was found not guilty, if the charge was dismissed, if the State's Attorney failed to prosecute the case, or if -- as in Caruthers' case -- the charge resulted in probation before judgment.
Probation before judgment isn't a conviction and it doesn't necessarily mean someone admitted guilt; instead, the court assigns a guilty disposition to the individual for the purpose of the sentence. Probation before judgment is comparable to deferred adjudication in which a judge can hold off entering a judgment against a defendant as long as certain conditions are met. The judgment is effectively set aside if the individual successfully completes the terms of probation.
Dino Flores, the attorney who represented Caruthers in the Maryland case, told NJ Advance Media in March his former client would have no comment.
"There may have been a closed case as far as Maryland is concerned," he said. "Dr. Caruthers is not going to comment on a case that doesn't exist legally."
Caruthers' attorney, Robert Dunn, previously said his client was sorry for any misunderstanding.
"My client had no intention of causing any harm to this young man," Dunn said. "It was more in the nature of an accident."
Dunn has not yet responded to additional requests for comment placed by NJ Advance Media.
Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.