Sunday, December 05, 2010

Pastor Nesmith gets a mistrial

TerryNesmithPastor Terry Nesmith of Lubbock, Texas, was given a gift of sorts. In his trial for the alleged molestation of 9 or 10 year old child, his trail ended with a mistrial from a hung jury. Nesmith was indicted back in September of 2009. I had doubts about this case from the beginning. There was no physical evidence, only the word of the victim. These kinds of cases rarely make it to court. They are just too hard to prove. I hope they give this man another trial. He needs a to be cleared of the charge or convicted.

“This is the kind of case where you have to judge a man’s character,” Lanehart said. “The just thing in this case is to find an innocent man innocent because that is the truth.”

Reno said the woman’s dysfunctional family life made her the perfect victim for Nesmith and said the fact her family didn’t believe her when she first told them in 2003 was why so many victims of sex crimes never come forward.

I’ve heard from a few people involved in the trail. The character assassination was intense for both sides. This case has been going on for four years.

Nesmith was the pastor of Faith Assembly of God from August 1992 until July of 2009. The victim, who is now an adult, says Nesmith molested her over a four-year period, starting about 1995. Police records indicate she came forward in 2006.

Does anyone happen to know what the vote was on the jury? I mean, how many for conviction and how many against?

Clergy Sexual Abuse

2 comments:

Badger3k said...

Spam from Dennis. How trite.

Usually, a hung jury is split equally - that is the definition that I know. I'm not sure if anyone can abstain, so if not, it would be 6-6.

Sapphocrat said...

10 to 2 (10 not guilty, 2 guilty). Short story & postage-stamp-sized video:

http://tinyurl.com/2a7g8sk