Whew!

I am just now breathing a sigh of relief because I just learned the verdict on the trial that I was a juror on this week.

The case was publicized for quite some time on television and in the newspaper. I'm thankful that I missed seeing any of the media attention on this prior to going into the case. The allegations were from a then 16 year old student who accused her drivers education teacher of forcing her to perform oral sex on him while they were out on an after school driving lesson.

My first impression was that this guy must be a creep because kids don't make things like this up nor do false accusations make it as far as the D.A.'s office who represented the victim in this case. But as I heard more of the testimony without any witnesses since there were purportedly only two people involved, the final verdict became quite clear.

The victim had so many holes in her stories. She waited several months to come out with the allegations, which isn't unusal in a sex case, but her stories varied each time she told them. One thing was consistent, the attacker, who in the first version of her story was an unknown man, wore boxers. Then when she claimed it was her teacher that did this to her, he wore boxers during the attack as well. Her driving instructor doesn't have a pair of boxers to his name. Based on that and the many inconsistencies in her stories, the jury found him not guilty. Since I was an alternate, I didn't get to be part of the deliberations. It couldn't have taken them long to come to a conclusion, it was so very obvious to me that this man wasn't guilty.

I think this young girl was truly sexually victimized. I think it took place on the road she claimed it did and on the night she claimed as well. I think it was a male friend of hers that did it. Because she said she was on that road with him later that night, after the purported first attack. She may have consented with her friend and she may not have. And because she had a boyfriend at the time, I think this was a way for her to absolve her guilt for messing around willingly or protecting her so called "friend" if he did really attack her.

One of the biggest shames in this whole thing is that the man she accused of doing this to her is very well liked and respected in both the school where he works and in the community. I found out yesterday during his testimony that his wife was going through cancer treatment just before these allegations came out. That poor family, that poor man. What a senseless waste of time, energy, money and emotion for something that was obviously not true from the start. Both of these people's families friends and relatives will forever have to live with this huge scar that has been made because of this girl's false accusations.

I wish Mr. Frank and his family peace.