The state’s highest court will hear lawyers’ arguments in April on a former Maine State Trooper’s appeal of his sex crime convictions.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court doesn’t have to take oral arguments before deciding on appeals, so the fact the justices have called for them in Gregory Vrooman’s case is a positive sign, his lawyer Steven Peterson said.

“They don’t have to do it, so that means something has caught their attention,” Peterson said February 20.

Assistant Attorney General Deborah Cashman, the prosecutor in the case, did not immediately return a message.

In April 2012, a Lincoln County jury convicted Vrooman of sex crimes involving a young girl in 2009 and 2010, when the victim was 12 and 13 years old. Vrooman, now 47, has been sentenced to serve 21 months in prison, but he remains free while his appeal is pending.

Shortly after his convictions, the Nobleboro man was fired from the trooper’s job he’d held for nearly 25 years.

The date and time haven’t been set yet for the oral arguments, but they will take place some time from April 9 to April 11, a court clerk said February 20.

Peterson is trying to have the convictions reversed and get Vrooman a new trial. In his December 2012 written argument, Peterson maintained that evidence about erotic images on Vrooman’s computer was highly prejudicial and shouldn’t have been allowed at trial.

That evidence was relevant, Cashman countered in her written response January 28. She also disputed issues Peterson raised about a police affidavit used to obtain Vrooman’s computer.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com