The jury that decided the case involving Darren Maglione, 41, could not reach a decision on one charge: endangering the welfare of a minor.
Darren Maglione A Robbinsville man was acquitted today on charges that he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl in 2009.
The jury that decided the case involving Darren Maglione, 41, could not reach a decision on one charge: endangering the welfare of a minor.
After the verdict was read, Maglione cried and embraced his family, who have been at the trial every day. His attorney, Robin Lord, said the family is considering filing a lawsuit against “everyone involved.”
“It’s a shame it took five years for Darren to move on with his life,” Lord said.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office could decide to retry the case because the jury was hung on the endangering charge, Assistant Prosecutor Brian McCauley said.
“It’s not my call to make,” McCauley said.
He said he was “astounded” the jury acquitted Maglione.
Prosecutors alleged Maglione engaged in sexual conduct with the girl on several occasions between May and November 2009 and installed a spyware program on her computer to monitor her activity.
West Windsor Police Lt. Robert Garofalo testified last week that he found the spyware program on the computer after the girl submitted it for a search in November 2009. The program was designed to record all activity — including conversations had around the computer’s microphone — once the computer was turned on and send it to an e-mail address at Maglione’s home, he said.
The program could not have been easily found because in order to bring it up, the user needed to type a special code.
“It’s designed for individuals who are being spied on to not know they’re being spied on,” Garofalo said of the program.
Lord argued that the computer used to belong to Maglione, and the program could have been installed by his wife to track his online activity. The program was not set up to send any of the information to the e-mail address at the time Garofalo secured the computer, she said.
The girl initially told investigators from the prosecutor’s office that she and Maglione did not have a sexual relationship, but a year later admitted they did, Lord said.
“When that question was asked of her, if they were having sex, her answer was not only, ‘No’ but was, ‘Eww, no,’” Lord said of the initial interview.
Lord said the girl lied about the relationship because she was in love with Maglione, who was a friend of her father’s. The girl also sometimes baby-sat Maglione’s children, and Maglione would sometimes play manhunt with neighborhood children, Lord said.
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