All it takes is an accusation these days. But, the good news, and the bad news, is this: If the Dems keep crying wolf about this kind of stuff for short term political gain, people will start ignoring it. That's good for the wrongly accused, but bad for victims.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The discovery of a black lab named Lucy led to the unraveling of a criminal case Monday against an Oregon man who had begun serving a 50-year prison sentence.
Joshua Horner, a plumber from the central Oregon town of Redmond, was convicted on April 12, 2017, of sexual abuse of a minor.
In the trial, the complainant testified Horner had threatened to shoot her animals if she went to the police about the alleged molestation, and said she saw him shoot her dog, killing it, to make his point.
Six months after a jury convicted Horner in a verdict that was not unanimous, he asked the Oregon Innocence Project for help. The group took up his case.
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Horner had insisted he never shot the dog. Finding the dog would show the complainant had lied under oath. But if it was alive, where was it?
[Long, multi-state search ensued...dog found...with trail leading back to owner selling it]
Deschutes County Judge Michael Adler dismissed the case.
Horner, in a statement released by the Oregon Innocence Project, thanked the group, his family, friends and Hummel.
“Kelli and I are ready to pick up the pieces of our lives,” Horner said, referring to his wife. The couple came out of the courthouse Monday holding hands and smiling.
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After Lucy was found, the complainant failed to attend a meeting in August to discuss her testimony, Hummel said. Last Wednesday, one of his investigators heard she was at a home near Redmond. When he pulled up to the driveway, she ran away.
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“To be able to establish that a person should not have been convicted, you need something objective,” Wax said in a telephone interview. “In most child sex abuse cases, there is no evidence. Finding Lucy alive showed the complainant lied under oath in her testimony.”
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Link: https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/09/10/50-years-prison-sentence/