YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A frustrated judge in Hackensack today sentenced a disruptive Englewood convict to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting two children after she had Bergen County sheriff’s officers remove him.
Attorneys for both sides had just announced their names for the record when the man said: “Jahbriel El, on behalf of self.”
He then interrupted Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi as she began to speak.
“I’m here to withdraw my plea, your Honor,” El said.
Jahbriel El (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
The judge then tried to explain that she needed a formal explanation of his grounds in order to consider a plea withdrawl when El cut in again.
“Hold on, your Honor,” he said. “I was not informed of no letter I was required to submit. You’re pushing me out of court when I want to speak.”
In a long, rambling speech, El said he’d researched his rights from behind bars and insisted he was denied due process.
Finally, the judge had enough.
“He can’t stay in the courtroom and interfere with sentencing,” she said. “He is loud, unruly. He talks over everybody. He’s about obstructing.”
The only time that El cooperated, DeAvila-Silebi said, was “the day he decided to plead guilty” last fall.
He complied with sheriff’s officers who took him back to the county jail today.
The judge then denied the requested plea withdrawal and sentenced El to 10-year concurrent sentences for the aggravated sexual assaults of the youngsters, ages 3 and 7.
He received 1,200 days of jail credit and will have to register as a Megan’s Law offender when he is released from prison.
El originally was charged with assaulting three children — a 3-year-old and 7-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy — the same November 2010 day. But one of them didn’t want to testify, authorities said.
Authorities said El told them that he was sexually assaulted as a child and committed the crimes to get even with the mother of one of the victims.
He was on the verge of going to trial two or three times before taking a plea last year.
El, who is on his second lawyer in the case, tried to withdraw the plea at his November sentencing and was told that he had to submit a formal motion before today’s sentencing.
Defense attorney Ian Silvera, Jahbriel El
(STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)