Victim's mother's then-boyfriend accused of years of acts to 13-year-old Madeline Soto
When Stephan Sterns’ trial starts next week, you’ll see him free from physical restraints — but you won’t be able to read about it physically in the courthouse.
In what was likely the last hearing before jury selection begins in his trial next Tuesday, and the trial itself likely begins Friday, the man who prosecutors claim sexually assaulted 13-year-old Madeline Soto for as many as five years appeared in court Monday.
His defense team filed motions pertaining to how he’ll be restrained and whether he’d appear in any devices the court uses to keep a level of safety. The motion was partially granted; Sterns will not be in handcuffs, but will be fitted for a “stun cuff” on his right leg, which should be under his pants and on the leg away from the jury box.
A court deputy testified Monday that, “You’d have to look to find” such an apparatus, and that prior defendants have not mentioned the cuff being unduly uncomfortable.
Judge Keith Carsten also addressed defense motions regarding the availability of newspapers in the courthouse and media coverage in the courtroom. He said he’d order all media to follow judicial administration rules barring zooming in on the computer screens of defense and prosecuting attorneys alike. He also granted a motion suspending the delivery of papers — which court staff are normally available on a first-floor table on the way to the juror waiting area at the courthouse — during jury selection and the trial. (The News-Gazette, which was noted by name in the argument for having front-page stories on both this and Sterns’ pending murder case following each hearing, checked that table following Monday’s hearing, and found no newspapers.)
The defense previously filed a motion to close all pre-trial proceedings, which was denied. Carsten noted Monday he recognized both the rights to an open press and a fair trial.
The state noted Monday it will utilize a monitor on a cart and a whiteboard to show evidence to the jury, and position it such that only the jury, defense and judge on request should be able to see it in the courtroom.
This is the first of two trials Sterns faces. He will be tried on 60 charges that he sexually abused Soto, the daughter of his then-girlfriend, in the years before her 2024 death. He is also set to stand trial for Soto’s murder, currently scheduled for September.
