A Springfield, Massachusetts, man has been acquitted of charges that he raped a 15-year-old girl at the facility for troubled teens where he once worked.
Alphonso Cintron sank to the floor, rose, clenched his fists, thanked the heavens and turned to smile at his mother after the verdict was read Wednesday in Hampshire Superior Court.
Prosecutors said the 35-year-old Cintron raped the girl in 2009 while he was night supervisor at the Grove, a now-closed residential program in Northampton.
The girl, now 22, took the stand at trial to describe sexual encounters with two staff members. But her roommate at the facility testified that while the woman mentioned a sexual relationship with another staffer, she never said anything about Cintron.
Cintron had been held in jail for 19 months awaiting trial.
