SANDPOINT — The Idaho Court of Appeals is slated to take up the case of a Bonner County is serving a life sentence after being convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor.

Mark Richard Boncz was accused of molesting a 5-year-old girl in Priest River in 2005, but was not brought to trial until 2009. A grand jury indicted Boncz and he pleaded not guilty to the offense.

Boncz was accused of targeting and grooming the victim to slake his sexual desires.

A jury was meant to decide the case against Boncz, but a mistrial was declared when a prospective juror questioned during the selection process whether she could be fair and impartial in light of Boncz’s conviction for sexual abuse in 1987.

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