NORTHAMPTON — Clutching the table in front of him, defendant Alphonso S. Cintron sank to the floor Wednesday as the verdict was read: not guilty on all charges.
Cintron, 35, the former night supervisor accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at a residential treatment facility in Northampton in 2009, was acquitted in Hampshire Superior Court on two counts of aggravated rape of a child.
Cintron worked at the Grove, a Northeast Center for Youth and Families residential treatment program that closed in 2012.
Prosecutors also charged him with failing to report an instance of alleged abuse when he learned of a sexual encounter between the same underage girl and another supervisor. As a mandated reporter, Cintron was legally obligated to report the alleged abuse. Jurors returned a not-guilty verdict on that charge as well.
“While we are obviously disappointed with the jury’s verdict, we appreciate their service,” Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Caleb Weiner said in a statement. “We continue to believe in the victim in this case, and commend her for the tremendous courage she displayed in coming forward.”
Cintron’s accuser, now 22, had testified that there was immediate friction between the two when she moved into the Grove. The woman also testified that she was raped twice by another man, Fabian Williams, who was also a supervisor at the center. Williams, also of Springfield, is scheduled to be tried in July.
One summer night in 2009, following the alleged encounters with Williams, Cintron confronted her, the woman testified.
“Oh what, so Fabian’s the only one that gets to have fun?” he said to her, the woman testified. He then allegedly lifted her shirt as he fondled and kissed her breasts, she said.
Weeks later, Cintron and the girl lingered outside the facility, out of sight, as he smoked a cigarette. If she, too, wanted a cigarette, Cintron allegedly told her, she would have to “earn it,” the woman testified. That’s when he asked her at least three times to perform oral sex, she testified. At first she refused, but the last time he asked, she complied, according to her testimony.
Cintron’s attorney, Tracy E. Duncan of Springfield, argued during the trial that the then-15-year-old girl had a troubled childhood and manipulated the adults around her — including Cintron.
Her roommate at the Grove, Michela Calabrese, 21, testified that the alleged victim described, in graphic detail, the sexual encounters that she had with Williams. But not once did she mention any kind of sexual encounter with Cintron, consensual or otherwise, Calabrese testified.
That is “because it never happened,” Duncan told the jury in her closing arguments Tuesday.
Immediately after the verdict was read, Cintron rose, clenched his fists and thanked the heavens as Duncan brought him back to his feet.
“The lord is good,” Cintron proclaimed, smiling and turning to his mother seated in the courtroom gallery. “God is good. Remember that.”
Cintron had been jailed on $50,000 bail for more than 1½ years.
“Nineteen months is a long time,” Cintron said Wednesday before he walked out of the Hampshire County Courthouse a free man.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.