NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord Monitor
By JEREMY BLACKMAN
Monitor staff
Saturday, December 13, 2014
(Published in print: Saturday, December 13, 2014)
Daniel Leaf, a former Concord man and convicted sex offender with ties to Trinity Baptist Church, was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail for having molested his stepdaughter decades ago.
Leaf, 55, of Tilton, was found guilty last month in Merrimack County Superior Court. A judge had delayed his conviction after a last-minute request by prosecutors to amend the charges from aggravated felonious sexual assault to felonious sexual assault. The defense had argued that the aggravated charges, a Class A felony, had been incorrectly applied given the timing of the crimes – 1990. The victim was 9 at that time.
Felonious sexual assault is a Class B felony worth a maximum prison sentence of seven years.
Judge Larry Smukler had allowed jurors to go forward with deliberations, but gave Leaf’s attorneys until Monday to respond in writing to prosecutor’s request. A hearing had been set for Jan. 12. They have agreed to drop their arguments and forgo future appeals in exchange for the sentence announced yesterday, which Smukler described as “on the lenient end.”
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