Attorney for missing boy’s dad wants Jan. 13 trial

LYNN – The father of missing 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez appeared in court Tuesday without revealing his son?s whereabouts, but Ernesto Gonzalez? legal reckoning day is looming.
Lawrence Maguire, Gonzalez? attorney, asked a District Court judge to schedule Gonzalez? trial on a child endangerment charge for Jan. 13.
Maguire?s push to clear his client?s name sets the stage for District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett?s prosecutors over the next month to file a court document framing their case for Gonzalez? conviction on the endangerment charge.
“We will lay out our whole case,” Assistant District Attorney John Dawley said.
Giovanni has been missing since Aug. 17 when the boy?s mother went to Gonzalez? downtown apartment to pick up Giovanni after a weekend visit with his father.
Daisy Colon could not locate her son or Gonzalez and called police who found Gonzalez standing in his apartment alone in the dark wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. He told them he had not seen his son since the previous week.
Police charged him with child endangerment after Colon showed them a call she had made to Gonzalez on Aug. 15. Gonzalez pleaded innocent and, according to prosecutors and Colon, has remained silent about his son?s whereabouts since then.
Despite Colon?s hopes that he would break his silence in District Court Tuesday, Gonzalez did not speak during a several minute-long appearance.
Maguire plans to argue at Gonzalez? next scheduled court appearance on Dec. 11 that police failed to meet probable cause standards when they filed court warrants asking for permission to search Gonzalez? 2 Brightwood Terrace apartment.Maguire will ask a judge to exclude evidence seized from the search from legal proceedings against Gonzalez.
Maguire is also challenging the endangerment complaint arguing the court “magistrate heard no evidence that the defendant did any act to create a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or sexual abuse to his son.”
Prosecutors repeated their request Tuesday for the public?s help in finding Giovanni.
?We are asking people for any information, no matter how insignificant. If anyone saw Ernesto, even by himself, tells us where and tell us when. It might be the key that unlocks the door. We will spare no expense to follow any lead we have,” said District Attorney?s spokesman Steve O?Connell.