Sullivan County District Attorney Jim Farrell announced today that Jefferson Alvarez, 35, of Union City, N.J. was convicted on September 1 by a Sullivan County jury of two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree, both class D violent felonies, after a four day trial in Sullivan County Court.

The jury deliberated for about an hour before returning its guilty verdicts. Farrell said that the evidence at trial established that Alvarez subjected an eleven year old child to sexual contact at a home in the Village of Monticello in August of 2013.

Alvarez was arrested after the child reported the abuse to her mother and a subsequent investigation by Monticello Police. Alvarez’s defense at trial tried to convince the jury that he was not guilty by reason of insanity, but the jury rejected that defense.

Alvarez faces up to seven years in state prison and registration as a sex offender when he is sentenced on December 2, 2016. Alvarez had been released on $15,000 bail prior to the trial and after the jury’s verdict Judge Michael F. McGuire remanded him to the Sullivan County Jail without bail.

At a bail hearing this morning, District Attorney Farrell asked Judge McGuire to continue to remand Alvarez, a resident alien in this country from Columbia, to jail, or, if the Court was going to set bail to set $100,000, now that the jury had found him guilty and he posed a significant threat to flee and would likely be deported. Judge McGuire increased Alvarez’s bail to $30,000 and ordered his passport to be held by the Court.

Farrell said, “It certainly took courage for this child to testify in Court about what the defendant did to her and we are extremely pleased that the jury rejected the defendant’s alleged defense of insanity and, now, as a result, the defendant will be held accountable and responsible for abusing this child.”

Chief Assistant District Attorney Robert Zangla handled the prosecution of this case.