Richard Willis could get a new trial — but he's almost up for release anyway
TRENTON -- The state Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the conviction of a Piscataway man serving a 10-year sentence for raping a prostitute in 2006.
In a unanimous decision, the justices held that Richard Willis' trial jury was prejudiced because the court allowed them to hear testimony from another woman who claimed she had also been raped by Willis -- a crime for which he was not convicted.
The decision means Willis could get a new trial. But more than a decade after the alleged sexual assault, the 53-year-old inmate has almost served his sentence.
He is up for parole in November and his sentence ends August 21, 2017, state prison records show.
It is unclear if prosecutors intend to retry him. The Union County Prosecutor's Office, which brought the charges, and the state Attorney General's Office, which argued the case before the Supreme Court, declined to comment on the decision.
Piscataway man convicted of Plainfield sex assault
TWO SIMILAR RAPE CASES
According to the decision, Willis allegedly approached a woman, identified only as K.M., while she was walking in Plainfield in April 2006 and offered her a ride. K.M. testified she initially mistook him for a friend and got into his SUV.
The woman testified that she had been working that day as a prostitute to support her drug habit. Willis allegedly offered her crack cocaine in exchange for sex, but she declined. Willis then allegedly attacked her, burning her wrist with a cigarette and attempting to force her to perform sexual acts, eventually pinning her down and raping her.
The victim was unable to positively identify Willis as her attacker, but DNA evidence from a rape kit was found to match Willis.
At trial, prosecutors sought to present a second woman, identified only as N.J., as a witness. The woman had been the victim of a similar attack in 2003, in which a man matching Willis' description offered her a ride after her car had broken down, drove her to a remote location and sexually assaulted her.
N.J. had positively identified Willis as her attacker -- even pointing his car out to police shortly after the incident, prompting his arrest. But he was evidently never charged. N.J. testified she thought the police "had not believed her."
Prosecutors argued the woman's story was fair game because the facts she alleged "were similar in kind and reasonably close in time to the (2006) incident."
The court allowed the jury to hear her testimony with instructions that they could only consider the evidence to decide whether Willis "had a specific intent" to commit sexual assault. The jury was told they "could not use N.J.'s testimony to conclude (Willis) has a tendency to commit crimes or that he is a bad person," court records show.
But in the Supreme Court decision, Judge Mary Catherine Cuff wrote the testimony "had the effect of bolstering a shaky identification" of Willis by K.M.
The justices found the evidence from the 2003 attack "was not only irrelevant but also had the clear capacity (to prejudice the jury) and should not have been admitted."
Willis remains in custody at Northern State Prison. The state Public Defender's Office, which represented him, declined to comment on how the case would move forward.
S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.