Former neurosurgery professor Tracy McIntosh's resentencing hearing has been pushed back from today to Feb. 13 due to scheduling conflicts.
"The court was unavailable," said Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Richard DeSipio.
Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe, who has been handling the case since September, "was promoted to supervisory judge," he said. "It's just an administrative thing."
The postponement extends an already lengthy legal battle.
McIntosh, 54, pleaded no contest in 2004 to the 2002 sexual assault of his college roommate's niece, then 23. Prosecutors appealed McIntosh's initial sentence of 11.5 to 23 months of house arrest, eventually taking the case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. State guidelines call for three to six years in prison for McIntosh's offense.
The Supreme Court concurred with a Superior Court mandate and decided that McIntosh's initial sentence had been too lenient.
McIntosh's lawyer, Joel Trigiani, then filed a petition to delay his client's sentencing hearing so that Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Rayford Means, who was originally assigned to the case, could explain his reasons for his controversial decision.
Though Means has never stated his reasons for the sentence, McIntosh's resentencing - which had been postponed on several previous occasions - had been rescheduled for today.
Trigiani did not return phone calls yesterday for comment.
