Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Couple seeks suit in molestation case
Convictions overturned after serving 12 years
By James Hannah
Associated Press Writer
DAYTON, Ohio — A couple whose convictions on child-molestation charges were thrown out after they spent nearly a dozen years in prison asked a judge Monday to rule they were wrongfully imprisoned.
A ruling in their favor would allow them to seek damages from the state.
Sixteen years ago, children at the suburban Huber Heights apartment complex where Robert Aldridge and M. Jenny Wilcox lived accused the couple of molesting them.
The two were convicted and served 111/2 years of a life sentence before a judge threw out the convictions in March 1996 after three of their six accusers said the crimes never happened.
Prosecutors said then the case was too old to retry and that the witnesses did not want to go through another trial.
“These crimes never occurred,” Harry Reinhart, Mr. Aldridge's attorney, told visiting Licking County Judge Gregory Frost during the hearing Monday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. “They could not have occurred.”
But Charissa Payer, assistant Ohio attorney general, told Mr. Frost that two of the accusers still maintain the couple molested them.
She said evidence will show the conviction was justified, and the couple cannot prove they were wrongfully imprisoned.
Mr. Aldridge and Ms. Wilcox took the stand and denied ever molesting or having sexual contact with children.
“Being sentenced to five life sentences for something I didn't do is traumatic,” Ms. Wilcox said.
The case began in 1984 when three brothers ages 7, 10 and 11 were accused of being involved in the sexual assault of a girl who lived in the apartment complex.
One boy said then that Mr. Aldridge and Ms. Wilcox, not he and his brothers, were the perpetrators. The boy identified the couple after police showed him a photo spread.
Six children — aged 8 through 12 at the time — testified against the couple at the 1985 trial.
Mr. Aldridge and Ms. Wilcox each were convicted of multiple counts of rape and gross sexual imposition and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1994, the three brothers recanted their testimony when a private investigator questioned them.
After a hearing in 1996, Judge Richard Parrott said he was convinced the children who testified had been coerced into lying and that more than 80 pages of crucial evidence — including police reports listing other suspects and medical exams showing no signs of sexual abuse among the alleged victims — was omitted from the couple's trial.
If Mr. Frost rules that Mr. Aldridge and Ms. Wilcox were wrongfully imprisoned, Mr. Reinhart said, they will be able to seek monetary damages from the state in the Ohio Court of Claims. It is not known when Mr. Frost will rule.
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