A Kingston man charged with raping a 5-year-old girl in August was arrested over the weekend and arraigned in Plymouth District Court yesterday on charges of raping another young girl while he was out on bail.
Joseph Gardner, 26, pleaded not guilty to charges he raped of a 3-year-old child with force and intimidating a witness. He allegedly told the girl he would kill her father if she told anyone, according to boston.com.
“This is obviously very disturbing allegations from this individual,” said Tim Cruz, Plymouth County District Attorney.
Gardner was charged with breaking and entering and rape of a child by force in his pending superior court case. His bail was set at $10,000 by Judge Joseph Walker III, an associate justice for the Superior Court, which Gardner posted in October.
Cruz said that the prosecutors asked for a $200,000 bail originally. When asked why the bail was set as low as $10,000, Cruz replied, “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask the judge that.”
However, reports show prosecutors did not ask for an initial dangerousness hearing.
“I feel that we have investigated quickly and properly and we have the evidence needed to convict the individual of two counts of rape of children,” said Kingston Police Chief Joseph Rebello.
However, defense attorney for Gardner said that she had “some evidence of a highly exculpatory nature” that she planned to present in court during the hearing, according to reports. The defense attorney’s name was not released.
“We will make sure we will do our best to make sure that justice prevails for both of these children,” said Cruz.
