Man Imprisoned For Molesting Pawtucket Girl Denied New Trial

PAWTUCKET, RI — A Providence man serving prison time for molesting a Pawtucket woman’s granddaughter has been denied a new trial following his appeal to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

The state’s highest court ruled Friday that a Superior Court judge acted properly when he denied a new trial to Antonio Acosta, who was 70 at the time of his 2013 arrest. In 2015, he was convicted by a Providence County Superior Court jury of three counts of second-degree child molestation and one count of first-degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to serve 15 years at the Adult Correctional Institutions.

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On appeal, Acosta argued that the trial judge overlooked the girl’s motive to lie and failed to consider the absence of outside evidence. Acosta had been in a relationship with the victim’s grandmother, and claimed the girl was angry with him because she had told him she was gay and he didn’t keep that a secret.

The Supreme court ruled that issues of the victim’s gender identity and her deteriorating relationship with family members were properly considered at trial, and that the evidence was sufficient. The victim now identifies as male, but was female at the time of the sexual assaults, court records state. The victim agreed to be identified as a girl for the the purposes of the appeal.

Pawtucket Police accused Acosta of molesting the girl over a span of three years, starting when she was 11. Police launched their investigation after the girl told a school counselor she was being abused.