An ex-cop who for nearly 35 years dodged allegations of child sexual assault, Leonard Forte, is dead, according to the Vermont State Police.
Forte was 80 years old.
Capt. Jeremy Hill, chief criminal investigator for the state police, confirmed Forte’s death via Major Dan Trudeau, commander of the criminal division.
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Forte’s lead defense attorney in Vermont, Susan McManus, also confirmed his death.
Forte’s defense attorney in Florida, James Ermacora, said Forte died on Wednesday at his home in LaBelle, a city just east of Fort Myers.
The cause of Forte’s death was not immediately available.
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At the time of his death, Forte had been fighting extradition to Vermont to stand trial.
On Dec. 10, the Vermont Supreme Court dealt his case a blow, dismissing an appeal that he was not physically capable of facing a jury due to various medical conditions.
Forte, a former detective with New York’s Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, had been accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl at his Landgrove vacation home in 1987.
A Bennington County jury convicted him the next year of three counts of sexual assault, but a judge granted his request for a new trial — asserting that a female prosecutor had prejudiced the jury by being too emotional in her closing argument.
The state recharged Forte in 1997, but the case stalled for decades as he claimed to be too sick to travel from Florida to Vermont.
The prosecution resumed after a 2019 investigation by the USA Today Network found that he appeared to be healthy and leading an active life in retirement.
Forte faced additional charges earlier this year in two states.
- VTDigger
