This time around it looks like a jury will soon be seated to hear the case of a Bradenton Beach man charged with having sex with a 15-year-old, possessing and promoting child pornography and attempted bribery of a witness.
Joseph Edmund Chiquet was first arrested in July of 2009 after police learned Chiquet and a teenager were in a sexual relationship, and that he took sexual photographs of her in his Bradenton Beach apartment.
In 2010, authorities added a bribery charge, accusing Chiquet of offering an ex-girlfriend $10,000 if she told police she was depicted in the photographs and not, as prosecutors allege, the 15-year-old girl.
Since his initial arrest, Chiquet has pleaded not guilty to three felony cases:
· The first involves five counts of promoting the sexual performance of a child, two counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to a child and one obscene material display to a minor.
· The second case charges him with tampering with a witness.
· The third involves 18 counts of possession of child pornography and nine counts of promoting the sexual performance of a child.
In August, 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Charles E. Roberts found Chiquet “currently competent.”
Both the assistant state attorney and Chiquet’s defense attorney agreed the trial date will stick. It is scheduled to start between Oct. 20 and Oct. 31.
“It’s a priority case as made clear by Judge Roberts and our office,” said assistant state attorney Anthony DaFonseca, adding there’s no need for another continuance.
Asked if there were motions he’d be filing before trial, defense attorney Mark Lipinski said, “I’m sure there will be, but I’m not at liberty to say what they’ll be.”
DaFonseca anticipated only “housekeeping motions,” such as those to determine which of Chiquet’s three cases will go to trial.
During the past five years of litigation in these cases, there have been two appeals related to admissible evidence and numerous motions and hearings related to Chiquet’s competency to stand trial.
Each time competency has become an issue, three mental health experts have been called on to examine Chiquet and file reports.
Each time he was found incompetent, he was transferred to a mental health jail-like facility to regain competency, Lipinski said.
In the last competency review, Eddy Regnier, Mary Elizabeth Kasper and Ali Mandelblatt submitted forensic psychological evaluations, which have been sealed by the court.
The judge is expected to set a trial date at a pre-trial hearing before Oct. 20.