Alphonso Hill says he does not want to re-traumatize the multitude of women he was convicted of — and admits to — raping.

But two survivors of his crimes, Laura Neuman and Valerie Pieroni, say that’s just what he did Wednesday when he asked a Baltimore County judge for the ability to reduce his lengthy prison sentence.

The convicted rapist’s attorney, Mary Lloyd Patton, told Baltimore County Judge Stacy Mayer that Hill’s rights were violated during a March 2010 sentencing.

Because of that violation, she said, her client should have the ability to reduce his 30-year sentence for raping a 14-year-old girl in 1989.

Hill is serving a combined 105 years in prison for multiple rapes: Neuman in 1983 in Baltimore, Pieroni and seven other women in Baltimore County from the late 1970s through 1989, and the 14-year-old girl.

“I just think it sets a horrible example for criminals to think they can have so much evidence against them and get out on a technicality,” Pieroni said. “I know no one wants to die in prison, but he earned it.”

Patton’s argument is that Hill, now 73, was never informed he had a right to file a motion for post-conviction relief within 10 years of his sentencing.

Originally, Patton filed a petition in Circuit Court requesting that Hill receive post-conviction relief for the cases involving the eight Baltimore County women, including Pieroni. She argued that Hill’s rights were violated during that sentencing hearing, too.

But Hill withdrew the other petitions during Wednesday’s hearing.

Neuman said the confusing back-and-forth and ultimate decision to solely pursue post-conviction relief for a single case was all part of Patton’s strategy to make Hill seem reasonable.

“He even has the nerve to say that he doesn’t want to put his victims through this again, when in fact he’s continuing to put us through it,” she said.

Last-minute change

Wednesday’s court hearing started more than an hour late because Patton did not show up on time.

The defense attorney had filed a flurry of last-minute motions to include the case of the 14-year-old rape victim in her petition, court records show.

Hill — shackled around his wrists and ankles — testified that he withdrew the petitions for the eight other cases because he wanted the women to be able to move on with their lives.

“I don’t want to put them through it anymore,” Hill said from about 10 feet away from two of his victims. “I realized that I made my errors in the beginning and to try and double dip now and win at this point ... I don’t wanna do it.”

But he also told the judge he thought he had a better chance of winning his legal argument by focusing on the rape case involving the 14-year-old girl.

Mayer dismissed the petitions for the eight other cases with prejudice — meaning Hill cannot file for post-conviction relief again.

“If you change your mind later, it’s too bad. It’s too late. You will have no other chances,” she said.

Violated rights?

Patton — who said she could not remember the name of the nonprofit organization that hired her to represent Hill — presented two arguments in court.

The first, she said, is there are “extraordinary circumstances” that excuse Hill’s decision to petition the court for post-conviction relief after the 10-year deadline, including what she called an incompetent defense attorney at the time.

Kelsie Potts, the assistant state’s attorney representing Baltimore County, pressed Hill on whether he had problems with that defense attorney before he pleaded guilty in March 2010.

“At that time, would it be fair to say that you had no issue with your attorney’s performance?” she asked.

“I guess not,” Hill said.

Patton added that the prior defense attorney did not tell Hill he had 10 years — Maryland’s statute of limitations — to file for post-conviction relief, either.

But the prosecutor pushed back on that assertion, arguing that Hill knew about his post-conviction relief rights because he’d asked yet another previous defense attorney to file that same motion to reduce his initial 15-year sentence for raping Neuman in 2005.

Patton’s second argument was that, after Hill pleaded guilty in March 2010 to raping the 14-year-old girl in 1989, he told his defense attorney at the time that he wanted to modify his sentence but the attorney ignored him.

Maryland law allows defendants to ask their attorneys to file a motion to modify their sentence within 90 days of it being imposed. This is a separate request from asking for post-conviction relief.

A transcript from the March 2010 hearing shows no record of Hill asking the prior defense attorney to change his sentence.

“I know that I asked the lawyer to do it for me,” Hill said, suggesting he may have asked the defense attorney in the bullpen, a holding cell where prisoners are kept before entering court.

Can Hill be released?

For now Neuman, Pieroni and the other survivors will have to wait to see if the man who raped them is released from prison.

Mayer is required by Maryland law to decide whether Hill’s petition has merit, but there is no set time frame for when a judge has to issue a ruling.

If Mayer decides Hill’s rights were violated, there will be another hearing.

If Mayer decides his rights were not violated, Patton said, she will appeal the decision.

“Just look at the rights that he has in this process ... every tool he’s pulled out of that criminal justice box,” Neuman said. “The list [of rights] is short for the victims.”

In addition to appealing his sentence in court, Hill has an initial parole hearing scheduled in December 2027.

Neuman — who received a letter about Hill’s parole board hearing — thinks that if Mayer grants him the ability to reduce his 30-year sentence for raping the 14-year-old girl in 1989, he will be a more favorable candidate in front of the parole board.

Keith Martucci, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, confirmed Hill is eligible for parole. That’s because he will have served the mandatory minimum number of years, which is one-quarter of a total sentence for all crimes committed before 1994.

Hill is serving a combined 105 years and could be released as soon as June 2028, after spending 26 years and three months in prison.

This infuriates Neuman.

“Every time I get a letter about a hearing ... it always starts with: ‘You don’t have to show up,’” she said. “It’s almost like they don’t want our voice to be part of the process.”