Child rapist appeals ruling

Posted: 8:07 pm Tue, August 31, 2010
By Associated Press

A former south Baltimore Catholic school teacher convicted of raping one of his students in the mid-1970s has filed an appeal that he hopes will improve his chances of being released from prison.

A federal judge has ruled that John Merzbacher had ineffective counsel because his attorneys didn’t give him a chance to accept a 10-year plea deal before his 1995 trial. Judge Andre Davis ordered that Merzbacher should be offered the plea deal again — but he said a judge “must express a willingness” to go along with the deal.

Merzbacher’s appeal seeks to strike down that caveat in Davis’ ruling. He says in court papers that it’s not likely that a judge “would approve such a plea agreement today.”

Merzbacher was accused of molesting more than a dozen children at Catholic Community Middle School, but those charges were dropped when he was convicted and sentenced to four life terms.