George Mercer’s trial was over before it began.
The 46-year-old Fishkill resident faced several charges, including first-degree rape, in connection with his alleged role in a sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl. Last week, Mercer rejected a plea bargain from prosecutors.
However, on Tuesday, shortly before his trial was to begin, Mercer pleaded guilty to the rape charge before Judge Thomas J. Dolan in the Dutchess County Courthouse.
He was arrested in the spring, along with Henry Kiernan, 40, of Beacon, 48-year-old Allan Willig, of Stanfordville and the Hyde Park mother of two Town of Poughkeepsie sisters, aged 10 and 12.
By pleading guilty, Mercer will be sentenced to 12 years in prison. If the trial had gone forward, Mercer faced a sentence of 25 years, if found guilty.
Mercer admitted to Dolan that he had allowed Kiernan to bring the older girl to his home for the purpose of having sex with her. Mercer denied raping the girl himself.
Kiernan pleaded guilty on Sept. 15 to two counts of first-degree rape. He faces 19 years in prison and is due to be sentenced in late October.
Kiernan was initially charged with committing an indeterminate number of rapes on both girls during a period ranging from August 2002 to January 2004.
As part of his plea, Kiernan agreed to testify against Willig and Mercer if they proceeded to trial in the case. When the case was made public in late April, authorities said the girls’ mother invited Kiernan, a transient, to live in the apartment she shared with her daughter.
The authorities alleged that, in addition to raping the girls, Kiernan took the older sister to the homes of Willig and Mercer, where she was raped.
The mother, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the victims, pleaded guilty to attempted rape on Sept. 22, and will receive no more than six years in prison, under the terms of the deal.
The woman testified in court that she gave her daughter an alcoholic beverage as a prelude to sex with Kiernan. A court-appointed psychologist determined that the woman has an IQ of 64, as well as other mental problems.
Willig has indicated that he plans to challenge the charges against him in a trial.