The sex crimes trial of a former Franklin County state senator is on track to begin next month, after the judge rejected a defense request for a delay.
Norm McAllister is set to go to trial in July to face charges of sexual assault.
The Highgate, Vt., farmer, a former Republican senator, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a woman who lived in a trailer on his property in what prosecutors portrayed as a sex-for-rent scheme.
Judge Martin Maley issued several orders on Thursday responding to motions filed by McAllister’s defense team seeking to limit the admissible evidence, as well as to either dismiss the case or delay the trial over an accusation that the state wrongfully withheld evidence favorable to McAllister.
Both the defense team and the prosecutor told the judge at a hearing on Monday that they felt it would be appropriate to delay the case to allow the defense more time to review files it obtained only recently.
Maley, however, did not postpone the trial. Jury draw is still set to begin July 10.
The judge did grant some requests by McAllister’s defense team to limit the evidence that can be used from allegations of sexual misconduct involving two other women.
The order prevents the prosecution from using evidence, including testimony, from a woman who was the alleged victim in a previous sexual assault case against McAllister. Prosecutors dropped those charges during the trial last year, after the woman told a deputy state’s attorney she lied about a minor detail.
Another woman whom McAllister was accused of propositioning has since died.
This is the second time this case is going to trial. After a jury was selected for a trial in this case in January, McAllister entered into a plea agreement, which he later withdrew.