HARTFORD — A Manchester volunteer firefighter accused of trying to sexually assault a fellow firefighter pleaded guilty to a reduced charge Wednesday in Superior Court .
Christopher Pellingra will be sent to jail for nine months under a plea agreement with the state. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 15.
He pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to criminal attempt to commit first-degree unlawful restraint. With the Alford doctrine, a defendant does not admit guilt, but admits the state has enough evidence to convict.
Under the plea bargain, the full sentence would be five years in prison, suspended after nine months, followed by five years of probation. Pellingra was facing charges of criminal attempt to commit third-degree sexual assault, first-degree unlawful restraint and second-degree strangulation, according to judicial branch records.
The plea deal was struck as jury selection was underway. One of the people in the jury pool was former UConn basketball star Jennifer Rizzotti.
Pellingra, who had been on administrative leave, “will automatically be terminated from the Manchester Fire Department,” said Ron Russo, Eighth Utilities District fire chief. The woman resigned from the department.
Prosecutor Anthony Spinella told the court that Pellingra went over the woman’s house on Nov. 10, 2010.
“He restrained her in an attempt to get her to perform oral sex on him,” he said.
According to police, the woman told officers that early that day, Pellingra called her from his cell phone while he was just outside her duplex. The two had dated briefly years before, the woman said.
The woman let Pellingra in and they were sitting on a couch when Pellingra, smelling strongly of alcohol, got up and started tickling her, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. She pushed him away, and he stopped, but then resumed tickling her and getting more aggressive, the warrant says.
Pellingra pinned the woman’s arms, straddled her and tried to stick a hand down her pants, police said. He then forced her head toward his groin as he undid his pants, according to the warrant.
At one point, Pellingra grabbed a scarf the woman was wearing, wrapped it around her neck and choked her until she could not breathe, police said. The woman told police that she hit Pellingra until he got off of her, the arrest warrant says. The investigator, Officer Cory Palmisano, wrote that the woman had bruises on her neck and left forearm.
Confronted with the allegations, Pellingra told police that he and the woman were friends. He acknowledged that he had visited her and the two had engaged in playful tickling, but he denied any aggression, police said.
Pellingra agreed to take a polygraph test, but did not show up for the appointment, leaving a message with police that he had retained a lawyer, police said.
Attorney James Sulick said outside the courtroom Wednesday that Pellingra “wanted to take advantage of a disposition that limits his exposure [to jail time] and removes the requirement that he register as an offender.”