A sex offender jailed in northeastern Pennsylvania is fighting an order to appear at a trial involving the 1979 disappearance of a New York City boy.
The Citizens' Voice reports the attorney for Jose Ramos filed court papers Monday indicating he would appeal the ruling.
A county judge last month ordered Ramos to appear at the trial of Pedro Hernandez.
Police say Hernandez admitted killing Etan Patz. Last May, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly stated that Hernandez “has made statements to NYPD detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and the death of Etan Patz 33 years ago.”
Hernandez also lived and worked in Patz’s neighborhood and claimed to have lured the child with candy into a store before attacking him with a knife. However, the suspect's lawyer contends the confession is false. Hernandez's trial is set for April in New York.
Ramos, now 69, was once a suspect, but he was never criminally charged and has denied involvement in the crime. Police say he had been dating the boy's baby sitter in 1979 and was considered a suspect. He was later convicted of molesting two different children and was in prison in Pennsylvania prison for more than a quarter-century.
Ramos is currently jailed on unrelated charges.
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Patz's disappearance helped mobilize a nationwide missing-children movement.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
