NASHUA – During the three years and one month since he was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in his car, Jonathan Marden went to trial, was convicted by the jury, then won a motion for a new trial over the objections of prosecutors, who unsuccessfully appealed the new-trial ruling to the state Supreme Court.

Now, that new trial, which had been scheduled for next month, has been canceled, and Marden’s case is closed by the court after the prosecutor dropped the single charge of aggravated felonious sexual assault.

No reason for the decision to drop the charge is given in the single-page document, which Assistant County Attorney Cassie Devine filed recently in Hillsborough County Superior Court-South.

Marden, who has been free on bail all along, was accused of having sex in his car with a then-16-year-old acquaintance without her consent.

A grand jury indicted Marden on the charge in January 2017. Represented by attorney Timothy Goulden, Marden went to trial in early September 2017.

Later that month, after a three-day trial and about two and a half hours of deliberations, the jury found Marden guilty as charged.

Marden was to be sentenced in December 2017, but in the meantime Judge Charles Temple granted the parties’ assented-to motion to stay the case and the hearing never took place.

Instead, Marden had already begun working with his new attorney, Donna Brown, on his motion for a new trial. The motion was based on Marden’s claim that Goulden failed to effectively represent him at the first trial.

Now-retired Judge Philip Mangones granted the motion in late 2017, stating in his 22-page ruling that Goulden should have raised objections to much of the testimony by a key prosecution witness, and that he failed to introduce in timely fashion evidence that the victim had sex two days before the alleged rape.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, or at dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.