Maine state trooper recounts assault for trial
N.J. murder suspect had pleaded guilty to assaulting trooper in '95
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

NEW BRUNSWICK - With a calm voice, the Maine state trooper, who was assaulted by Steven Fortin, recounted her ordeal of the night of April 3, 1995, to the 11-man and five-woman jury in state Superior Court on Nov. 5.

Fortin, who is now 43 years old, is being retried on capital murder charges for the robbery, sexual assault and strangulation of Melissa Padilla, 25, in 1994 after she picked up some food for her four young children [ages 2 to 5] around 11 p.m. from Quick Chek on Route 1 in the Avenel section of Woodbridge.

Padilla's body was discovered naked from the waist down in a concrete pipe alongside Route 1. Her face and head were brutally beaten resulting in a broken nose; she was sexually assaulted and had bite marks on her chin and left breast, and she was strangled to death.

Police had exhausted all of their leads and the case remained unsolved until the Maine State Police contacted Woodbridge Township police, inquiring about Fortin in April 1995 because he was a township resident at the time. He was under investigation on an assault of a Maine state trooper. Fortin pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced in November 1995 to 20 years in a Maine prison.

Fortin was found guilty of Padilla's murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2000.

The New Jersey State Supreme Court in a 4-2 decision overturned the conviction and death sentence of Fortin in February 2004.

The court cited that the decision to allow the testimony by Robert Hazelwood, a former FBI agent, in the original trial concerning linkage analysis lacked sufficient scientific reliability to establish that the same perpetrator committed the Maine and New Jersey crimes.

Police did not uncover any forensic evidence linking Fortin to the Padilla murder.

The trooper, who was a patrolwoman at the time of the incident and now is a sergeant with the Maine State Police, said she thought she was "dreaming" and described the whole ordeal as a nightmare.

The trooper has been with the Maine State Police for 23 years.

"All of a sudden he [Fortin] explodes and gets my head against the door," she said. "It was about 8:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. on a Monday night."

The trooper, who was off-duty at the time, but in a police vehicle, observed Fortin's vehicle on the shoulder of Interstate 95 in Maine facing the wrong direction of traffic, which she described as "suspicious and alarming."

The trooper, who was dressed in athletic pants and a blue turtleneck sweater, said she was heading back to her home.

The trooper, who was 34 years old at the time, approached Fortin's vehicle and smelled alcohol. The trooper placed Fortin in the front passenger seat of the police vehicle as she radioed for backup and began completing paperwork related to the issuance of a motor vehicle summons.

"He said he was lost," said the trooper. "He seemed somewhat disoriented and confused. There was a strong odor of alcohol."

When asked for identification, Fortin was only able to produce a driver's permit.

The trooper asked Fortin to come back to the police vehicle so she could do field sobriety tests. Since they were on Interstate 95, the trooper decided it was safer to do the field sobriety tests inside the vehicle.

"He showed some signs of impairment," she said. "He was very cooperative."

As the trooper was filing paperwork, she told the jury she talked to Fortin and learned that he was heading to his parents' home in Newport after drinking one or two beers at a friend's home.

Fortin told the trooper and police that he heard a funny noise coming from his vehicle and pressed on the brakes, which made his vehicle do a 360.

The trooper said at this time she believed 45 minutes had lapsed.

The trooper said she lost consciousness after Fortin slammed her head against the doorpost.

"He had his hands around my throat," she said. "He's just enraged … very angry and has a vacant look in his eyes."

The trooper said she fell in and out of consciousness, which she said seemed like three to four seconds. When she came to, the trooper found herself in the front passenger seat of the police vehicle, naked from the waist down, her shirt pulled up, exposing one of her breasts, her feet and dangling over to the driver's side seat with only a sock on her right foot.

"I realized that I had been physically beaten and sexually assaulted," she said.

Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua asked the trooper if at some point she managed to escape the vehicle.

"Yes," answered the trooper.

Fortin was arrested at a rest stop less than two miles from the incident.

As a result of the incident, the trooper said she suffered a sexual assault. According to reports, she also suffered a broken nose and bites to her chin and left breast.

The state showed photos of the trooper's injuries to the jury. The trooper's eyes were swollen shut and she said she had to physically open her eyes, which she demonstrated for the jury by lifting her left eyelid.

The jury heard the recorded questioning session with the Maine State Police and Fortin, which occurred at 1:30 a.m. on April 4, 1995.

Fortin told police that at that point he was having a "shit day" and "just snapped" and to him the trooper was "just a blonde."

"She didn't look like a cop," he said. "The way she presented herself and asked for my credentials, it wasn't a trooper-like style."

Fortin also asked police how the "lady cop" was doing and police told him that she was in the hospital.

"I just beat her dead in the nose 10 times … two, three, or four, I don't remember, but they were good shots," he said. "But that is all that should be wrong with her; I didn't [sexually assault] her."