hey_moe
November 10th, 2012, 02:09
HAMPTON — With a stroke of a pen Friday morning, a Circuit Court judge in Hampton wiped away Jonathan Montgomery's conviction on three felony sexual assault charge — and vacated more than two years left on his prison sentence.
That came after the supposed "victim" in the case told police investigators last month said she had lied at Montgomery's 2008 trial about getting sexually assaulted outside her grandmother's home eight years earlier.
But when Montgomery's family drove out to Jarratt, Va., to pick him up at Greensville Correctional Center late Friday, the Department of Corrections told them he wasn't being released.
"My son's getting screwed," said his father, David Montgomery, of North Carolina, who was spending the night at a hotel near the prison. "They're holding an innocent man without due cause. I am going to come back to the prison tomorrow, demanding my son's release."
According to Montgomery's lawyer, Deputy Hampton Public Defender Ben Pavek, the Attorney General's Office contends that the Circuit Court judge on the case, Randolph T. West, didn't have the authority to order Montgomery's release.
That didn't sit right with Pavek, who slammed both the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General's office and said that West had authority to rule.
"This is a purely innocent man being held in custody under no legal basis whatsoever," Pavek said. "They are defying a lawful, valid court order to release an innocent man who has been held in custody based upon a total fabrication for four years."
The Department of Corrections and Attorney General's Office couldn't be reached for comment late Friday, but the Attorney General's Office has previously asserted that only higher state courts, not Circuit Courts, can order a defendant's release more than 21 days after a trial.
Going to a higher court, such as filing a "writ of actual innocence," could extend Montgomery's date of release by months, according to lawyers familiar with the process.
A false conviction
Friday had started more optimistically for the Montgomery family.
At the morning hearing, Hampton's top prosecutor, Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell strongly backed a motion from Pavek to throw out the conviction.
"We come here with heavy hearts," Bell said. "The chief witness in the case has perpetrated a lie and committed perjury upon this court."
At a trial in Hampton Circuit Court in June 2008, West relied primarily on the testimony of Elizabeth Paige Coast, then 17 years old, who claimed that Montgomery assaulted her outside her grandmother's house in late 2000, when Montgomery was 14 years old and she was 10.
Last month, however, the 22-year-old Coast — then a civilian information clerk at the Hampton Police Division — told a police officer that she had fabricated the allegations.
West, the same judge who found Montgomery guilty in June 2008, voiced regret for having found him guilty.
"There are very few times when this court is at a loss for words, but this is the court's worst nightmare," West said Friday. "There are no words that are adequate to say to Mr. Montgomery that this court regrets the error that has been made."
West said he couldn't give the 26-year-old Montgomery back four years of his life, and said he could understand if Montgomery couldn't accept his apology. "You will never forget this, and God knows, I will never forget it," West said.
Fabricating a lie
Bell, who was not the original trial prosecutor, told West at the hearing that Coast has been interviewed on "multiple occasions" to make sure "that her recantation is in fact true."
Coast gave a detailed explanation for the lie, telling investigators that she had been caught by her parents viewing pornographic websites in the family's home — and concocted the story of prior sexual abuse as a way of explaining why she was looking at porn, Bell said.
It was October 2007 when Coast told police that her grandmother's former neighbor named "John" had assaulted her back in 2001, when she was 10 years old and Montgomery was 14.
The girl said her attacker forced her to perform oral sex, and that the incident took place outside her grandmother's house on South Greenfield Avenue, off North Armistead Avenue. Montgomery's family had lived there when his father was stationed at Naval Station Norfolk (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/topic/unrest-conflicts-war/defense/naval-station-norfolk-PLCUL0000134.topic) as a Navy electrician.
Though she didn't remember Montgomery's last name, Coast picked him out of his high school yearbook photo.
Bell says she picked Montgomery as her attacker because she knew his family had moved away and that "she did not believe that the police would be able to track him down."
But police did track him down, finding him at his mother's home in Florida.
Based chiefly on Coast's false testimony, Montgomery was convicted of three felonies — forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and object sexual penetration. He was sentenced to 45 years, with 7.5 years to serve and 37.5 years suspended.
Shortly after the trial — but before the sentence — Coast began working at the Hampton Police Division as a civilian information clerk.
Coast never backed away from her lie, until last month. In October, Coast told a Hampton police officer that she had lied at the trial. That revelation led to a joint investigation by the Hampton Police and Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.
"Imagine you're living your life in Florida, and the police show up and say seven years ago you're committing sexual acts on a minor child," Pavek said. "And you say, 'What?!' Your life is ripped from you. And it's all based on somebody just saying this. Wow. That's frightening."
Pavek said he's never had a previous case like this one. "What a bizarre thing to make up to divert attention from looking at porn web sites," he said. "She had nerve."
Correcting a wrong
At the request to throw out the charges and vacate the remaining sentence, West said on Friday: "Your motion is granted."
West seemed somewhat shaken while addressing Montgomery.
Much of what he does, he said, is assess witness character and credibility. "You look at witnesses, you look at things like eye contact, and you do what you think is right," he said.
Montgomery, seated at a table in the courtroom, didn't react much to West's ruling, but his father, mother, step-mother and sister — seated near the front of the courtroom — reacted with tears and elated sighs of relief.
"It's a miracle," his mother, Mishia Woodruff, of Panama City, Fla., said after the hearing.
"This has been my life for five years, and now this great weight has been lifted off of me," said Jonathan's father, David Montgomery, an appliance repairman and retired Navy electrician from western North Carolina.
Montgomery said he's been "consumed" with the case for five years, spending hours thinking about it, writing some of the legal briefs, and organizing numerous binders filled with every piece of paper ever filed in the case.
After the hearing, Pavek said the reason Jonathan Montgomery didn't show any emotion after West's ruling Friday was because he wants to "wait until he's physically out" to celebrate. When that celebration will take place remains to be seen.
Montgomery's family had hoped that celebration would be Friday night or the next day. After the hearing, they went to the prison, about two hours from Hampton, to wait upon Jonathan's release.
"I'm going to sleep on the doorstep until my son walks out," David Montgomery said Friday morning — before learning of the attorney general's interpretation of the judge's lack of authority.
Perjury charges
Whereas the legal proceedings could be nearing an end for Jonathan Montgomery, they are beginning anew for Elizabeth Paige Coast.
At Friday's hearing, Bell said that Coast would be arrested after the hearing and charged with perjury. Police arrested Coast — who has worked as a civilian employee at the Hampton Police Department for the past four years — at 10:30 a.m., said police spokesman Sgt. Jason Price.
She had been placed on leave without pay on Nov. 2, and she resigned effective immediately on Friday morning, Price said. Under Virginia law, perjury is a Class 5 felony, punishable by up to 10 years behind bars.
This is welcome news for the person who originally prosecuted the case.
Leslie A. Siman-Tov, who now works in private practice, said she couldn't believe it when a Hampton (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/topic/us/virginia/hampton-county/hampton-%28hampton-virginia%29-PLGEO100101154030000.topic) prosecutor recently called her to ask her about the case. She said that if Coast indeed concocted the story, "they need to charge her."
That came after the supposed "victim" in the case told police investigators last month said she had lied at Montgomery's 2008 trial about getting sexually assaulted outside her grandmother's home eight years earlier.
But when Montgomery's family drove out to Jarratt, Va., to pick him up at Greensville Correctional Center late Friday, the Department of Corrections told them he wasn't being released.
"My son's getting screwed," said his father, David Montgomery, of North Carolina, who was spending the night at a hotel near the prison. "They're holding an innocent man without due cause. I am going to come back to the prison tomorrow, demanding my son's release."
According to Montgomery's lawyer, Deputy Hampton Public Defender Ben Pavek, the Attorney General's Office contends that the Circuit Court judge on the case, Randolph T. West, didn't have the authority to order Montgomery's release.
That didn't sit right with Pavek, who slammed both the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General's office and said that West had authority to rule.
"This is a purely innocent man being held in custody under no legal basis whatsoever," Pavek said. "They are defying a lawful, valid court order to release an innocent man who has been held in custody based upon a total fabrication for four years."
The Department of Corrections and Attorney General's Office couldn't be reached for comment late Friday, but the Attorney General's Office has previously asserted that only higher state courts, not Circuit Courts, can order a defendant's release more than 21 days after a trial.
Going to a higher court, such as filing a "writ of actual innocence," could extend Montgomery's date of release by months, according to lawyers familiar with the process.
A false conviction
Friday had started more optimistically for the Montgomery family.
At the morning hearing, Hampton's top prosecutor, Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell strongly backed a motion from Pavek to throw out the conviction.
"We come here with heavy hearts," Bell said. "The chief witness in the case has perpetrated a lie and committed perjury upon this court."
At a trial in Hampton Circuit Court in June 2008, West relied primarily on the testimony of Elizabeth Paige Coast, then 17 years old, who claimed that Montgomery assaulted her outside her grandmother's house in late 2000, when Montgomery was 14 years old and she was 10.
Last month, however, the 22-year-old Coast — then a civilian information clerk at the Hampton Police Division — told a police officer that she had fabricated the allegations.
West, the same judge who found Montgomery guilty in June 2008, voiced regret for having found him guilty.
"There are very few times when this court is at a loss for words, but this is the court's worst nightmare," West said Friday. "There are no words that are adequate to say to Mr. Montgomery that this court regrets the error that has been made."
West said he couldn't give the 26-year-old Montgomery back four years of his life, and said he could understand if Montgomery couldn't accept his apology. "You will never forget this, and God knows, I will never forget it," West said.
Fabricating a lie
Bell, who was not the original trial prosecutor, told West at the hearing that Coast has been interviewed on "multiple occasions" to make sure "that her recantation is in fact true."
Coast gave a detailed explanation for the lie, telling investigators that she had been caught by her parents viewing pornographic websites in the family's home — and concocted the story of prior sexual abuse as a way of explaining why she was looking at porn, Bell said.
It was October 2007 when Coast told police that her grandmother's former neighbor named "John" had assaulted her back in 2001, when she was 10 years old and Montgomery was 14.
The girl said her attacker forced her to perform oral sex, and that the incident took place outside her grandmother's house on South Greenfield Avenue, off North Armistead Avenue. Montgomery's family had lived there when his father was stationed at Naval Station Norfolk (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/topic/unrest-conflicts-war/defense/naval-station-norfolk-PLCUL0000134.topic) as a Navy electrician.
Though she didn't remember Montgomery's last name, Coast picked him out of his high school yearbook photo.
Bell says she picked Montgomery as her attacker because she knew his family had moved away and that "she did not believe that the police would be able to track him down."
But police did track him down, finding him at his mother's home in Florida.
Based chiefly on Coast's false testimony, Montgomery was convicted of three felonies — forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and object sexual penetration. He was sentenced to 45 years, with 7.5 years to serve and 37.5 years suspended.
Shortly after the trial — but before the sentence — Coast began working at the Hampton Police Division as a civilian information clerk.
Coast never backed away from her lie, until last month. In October, Coast told a Hampton police officer that she had lied at the trial. That revelation led to a joint investigation by the Hampton Police and Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.
"Imagine you're living your life in Florida, and the police show up and say seven years ago you're committing sexual acts on a minor child," Pavek said. "And you say, 'What?!' Your life is ripped from you. And it's all based on somebody just saying this. Wow. That's frightening."
Pavek said he's never had a previous case like this one. "What a bizarre thing to make up to divert attention from looking at porn web sites," he said. "She had nerve."
Correcting a wrong
At the request to throw out the charges and vacate the remaining sentence, West said on Friday: "Your motion is granted."
West seemed somewhat shaken while addressing Montgomery.
Much of what he does, he said, is assess witness character and credibility. "You look at witnesses, you look at things like eye contact, and you do what you think is right," he said.
Montgomery, seated at a table in the courtroom, didn't react much to West's ruling, but his father, mother, step-mother and sister — seated near the front of the courtroom — reacted with tears and elated sighs of relief.
"It's a miracle," his mother, Mishia Woodruff, of Panama City, Fla., said after the hearing.
"This has been my life for five years, and now this great weight has been lifted off of me," said Jonathan's father, David Montgomery, an appliance repairman and retired Navy electrician from western North Carolina.
Montgomery said he's been "consumed" with the case for five years, spending hours thinking about it, writing some of the legal briefs, and organizing numerous binders filled with every piece of paper ever filed in the case.
After the hearing, Pavek said the reason Jonathan Montgomery didn't show any emotion after West's ruling Friday was because he wants to "wait until he's physically out" to celebrate. When that celebration will take place remains to be seen.
Montgomery's family had hoped that celebration would be Friday night or the next day. After the hearing, they went to the prison, about two hours from Hampton, to wait upon Jonathan's release.
"I'm going to sleep on the doorstep until my son walks out," David Montgomery said Friday morning — before learning of the attorney general's interpretation of the judge's lack of authority.
Perjury charges
Whereas the legal proceedings could be nearing an end for Jonathan Montgomery, they are beginning anew for Elizabeth Paige Coast.
At Friday's hearing, Bell said that Coast would be arrested after the hearing and charged with perjury. Police arrested Coast — who has worked as a civilian employee at the Hampton Police Department for the past four years — at 10:30 a.m., said police spokesman Sgt. Jason Price.
She had been placed on leave without pay on Nov. 2, and she resigned effective immediately on Friday morning, Price said. Under Virginia law, perjury is a Class 5 felony, punishable by up to 10 years behind bars.
This is welcome news for the person who originally prosecuted the case.
Leslie A. Siman-Tov, who now works in private practice, said she couldn't believe it when a Hampton (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/topic/us/virginia/hampton-county/hampton-%28hampton-virginia%29-PLGEO100101154030000.topic) prosecutor recently called her to ask her about the case. She said that if Coast indeed concocted the story, "they need to charge her."