From the Associated Press :
Virginia’s attorney general says a Hampton judge lacked jurisdiction to order the release of an imprisoned man whose accuser recanted her sexual assault allegation.
Brian Gottstein, a spokesman for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, says Jonathan Montgomery’s case is a tragedy. But he says in an email today that Circuit Judge Randolph West’s order exonerating Montgomery and vacating the final two years of his sentence is void under state law. He says Montgomery probably needs to petition the Virginia Court of Appeals for a writ of actual innocence, which Cuccinelli will support.
Montgomery’s father, David Montgomery, says his son should be released immediately. He says the attorney general’s office is holding an innocent man captive.
Family went to pick the young man up only to find out that he was not going to be released. The Washington Post reported:
Jonathan Montgomery, 26, was convicted in 2008 of sexually assaulting Elizabeth Paige Coast. The accuser, then 17, claimed Montgomery assaulted her outside her grandmother’s house in Hampton in 2000 when he was 14 and she was 10. Montgomery was sentenced to 7½ years in prison.
The Associated Press does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault. However, Coast is being identified because authorities say she admitted to fabricating the story and she has been charged with perjury.
On Friday, Hampton Circuit Judge Randolph T. West tossed Montgomery’s felony convictions and ordered him released from prison.
But when relatives went to pick Montgomery up at the prison in Jarratt, they learned Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s office had declared the order invalid because the judge lacked jurisdiction.
Cuccinelli’s office says Virginia Law will not allow the judge to release Montgomery. It seems to me that in this highly unusual case, Cuccinelli could put down whatever far right activism he is working on and personally walk this case through whatever hoops need to be navigated so this individual does not have to spend one more day in prison.
It sounds like a wrongful conviction to me. How can the AG not get involved and help this family out? Shame on him!
This woman who had this young man put away needs to go to jail for the time Jonathan spent in prison. His story brings tears to your eyes. Where was the DNA evidence? It didn’t exist because it didn’t happen.
Further Reading click HERE! The story is heartbreaking.
Jonathan Montgomery appears to be little more than a boy.
Perhaps he believes in “climate change”.
We aren’t talking about a kid who got off on a technicality. We are talking about a kid here who was lied about deliberably to get some little bitch off the hook. I guess the only thing I can say in her defense is that she was a kid herself.
Still. These are children. There should have been more to it the evidence considering this boy’s life is probably ruined.
How Cuccinelli gets his name in the paper. Other people’s expense…isn’t that his m.o.
Yes, that is his MO. He is either being an activist or screwing someone over.
This man looks like a kid. I don’t think anyone comes out of prison a kid.
I wonder how the cooch would feel if this were his son?! I bet you HIS kid would not sit a minute longer in jail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I called the attorney generals office and asked when this young man was going to be released, that if this were Cuccinellis’ son he would not be there a minute longer. This young man was set up by this girl because she got caught looking at porn. She admitted she found his picture in a year book for G-d’s sake.
I was told they were “investigating” to which I replied “investigating what? The girl recanted, the judge freed this innocent young man!” So she continues to say the same thing, we are investigating. I finally said “so, I see how the AG works. To intercede on the dept of health and tell them they have to change their opinion for abortion clinics he can use his AG power, but to intercede on behalf of this young man is not within his pervue?” I was disgusted. I said” so he cares more about a womans uterus than you do about the life of this young man in the here and now.”
I have a son, to imagine this happening to my child is heart breaking.
Here is the number to call the AG office.
(804) 786-2071
Hey let them investigate before they free him. Of course they should expedite it.
Reading the story, I do tend to agree that Cuccinelli should faciilitate the man’s release immediately in some manner – and I presume he will. The bigger issue to me is that the guy was convicted in the first place.
The girl was evil – though this is mitigated by her finally coming clean.
The girl’s family are presumably idiots.
A prosecutor prosecuted him and a jury convicted him, based on no evidence other than the girl’s story.
This is how witches used to get burned.
I saw this almost happen to someone I know. He was accused of molesting a pre-teen girl. I felt that it could easily have been me. I remenbered a year earlier asking my wife not to leave me alone in the house with this girl again, because I had a bad feeling about her behavior (trying to get me to go into cars and locked rooms with her). The girl told several different versions of her story. Clearly the police were hoping that the child’s guardian that night had a clue whether the story was true – i.e. did your boyfriend really molest your relative? But the girl’s family refused to question her or get clarity on what happened – while the guy languished in jail. Their position was “the police will have to figure it out”. It may be the one really good thing I ever did in my life that I got personally involved and convinced one family member to meet with the man’s defense and eventually testify to the girl’s odd behavior and lack of truthfulness. Until that happened, the man was on the verge of taking a pleas bargain and being classified as a sex offender. I blame the family; they cared more about preserving an image of the girl as truthful or at least not a total psychotic than they did about what really happened or about the man languishing in jail. I found it dysfunctional and disgusting. But it was real. I don’t doubt that the girl’s family in this case has a similarly underdeveloped sense of morality and personal responsibility.
I was also struck in this case (the one I was involved with) by how uninterested the prosecutor was in the man’s likely innocense. I met with them personally. They didn’t care whether he really did it; it was their job to prosecute and by God they did. Apparently they were within a hair of getting him to accept a plea bargain and a jail sentence and a sex offender classification. It shook my faith in our legal system frankly – it’s played like a game, not a quest for justice.
History shows us that children WILL make up stories – I cite again witch burnings. Given that, I think there should be real evidence before anyone is presumed to have raped or molested.
Rick, on behalf of all of us who have sons and brothers, thank you for stepping up to the plate.
Yes, there are people, including women out there, who are truly evil. Yes, you sometimes just known. I have had the misfortune of knowing 2 females I just thought were pure evil in my life, although I don’t know they did anything like what you described.
I called the AG’s office and was assured he was working on it at the moment. I said he needs to be in his car going over there to get the young man. She said he wasn’t in his car but he was working on it at the moment.
I am not a lawyer. I dont know what the hold up is but I did tell her I was born and raised in this state and today I was ashamed that I was a Virginian.
@Rick Bentley
As to evidence, I agree that there should be real evidence rather than just say so.
Some children are evil. Some do make up stories. I have had several friends who were victims of made up stories. I expect those children grow into evil adults.
This girl who lied on Jonathan Montgomery must have had some shred of conscience.
I am glad his family stuck by him.
Read the full story of this girl’s evilness and Cuccinelli’s …not even sure of the word. Inaction?
http://www.dailypress.com/news/breaking/dp-nws-victim-recants-1110-20121109,0,4625376.story?page=2
I’m with you on this Rick, totally!
@Rick Bentley
Well said Rick. Unfortunatley, we must now teach and advertize the need for the rule of two in dealing with children. The risk is too great professionally and personally. The police are to ready to accept these accusations and to push the boundries in order to charge people with these kinds of crimes, and then the Courts threaten excessively long sentences in order to get plea agreements. You, Rick, blame the family for supporting their daughter/relative. I blame the police and the Courts for not doing their due dilegence to protect not just the victum – and there are victums here- but also the accused. Worse, in PWC you can actually be charged and sentenced for sex crimes for being unlucky enough to have had a child porn site automaticlly download onto your computer. Truth is, you do not even have to be accused of touching anybody today to be labled and prosecuted as a sex offender.
In this case, I would think there are civil liabilities – even garnishments – to be paid.
@Blue
Go back and ask yourself why courts go for longer sentences? Who are they listening to?
They are listening to the people.
Frankly, if you have a child molester charged and convicted with reliable evidence, you can throw away the key. Reliable evidence was missing in this case.
Is there documented proof that PWC arrests for downloaded porn on your computer? I have been redirected to porn sites unintentionally when I put in a bad address. I doubt that I am going to go to jail over that.
@Moon-howler
I have a hard time with sex crime sentences that exceed murder convictions, but I don’t think we disagree.
Yes.
blue, I blame the family, the prosecutor, the jury or judge. Each should have been a checkpoint against this guy being roalroaded. They all failed and probably each had faith in the other one to be doing the right thing.
Moon, I doubt that you got redirected to anything that is actually illegal.
I think that most child porn arrests happen either because the person is keeping and either viewing or sharing the pornography. Also I think most of them happen as a result of sting operations, where they are quite sure the person intentionally downloaded the stuff. But there is potential for some capable hacker to frame somebody.
It’s theoretically possible, but I haven’t heard of any such cases. What I have heard is some amazing attampts to justify posession – one guy recently was in the news after telling police that the stuff must have been on his computer because his cat randomly downloaded it with its paws.
@Rick, I think you are right. I got redirected to gateways….nothing too revealing. Just teasers for people so inclined.
I wasn’t so I left.
I would blame all those people you mentioned also.
I feel like called cooch’s office back and ask ing if the kid is out yet.
I think it’s wonderful that you called the AG’s office. I’ll call tomorrow.
They heard from both Elena and me. I think I was less political. [knowing look]
I was assured he was working on it but he wasn’t in his car. I said I thought he needed to be.
I think this phone number needs to move on down where its easy to find.
Here is the number to call the AG office.
(804) 786-2071
Free Jonathan Montgomery!!!
If this act was supposedly committed (I know it wasn’t) when this boy was 14, why on earth was he tried as an adult? He was 14. That’s a long way from an adult. Did anyone think it was funny that this incident only happened to this girl? Usually when you have a perv in the hood, there are othe victims.
So 7 years later they go swooping in on this family in Florida and they do it on the say so of a girl who didn’t report the crime until 2007? This sounds like horrible police work and a horrible court system.
I simply don’t understand how this could have happened.
People are so ready to believe the worst about others. She was ten years old, looking at porn on the Internet and knew all about oral sex? At 10? I think therein lies the problem. How irresponsible of her “parents”.
Lyssa, I don’t know if you have young kids, but the internet has changed kids’ exposure to sexual stuff.
When I was 15, I had maybe one or two friendw who had copies of Playboy, and looking at them was a big deal.
Nowadays, unless you’re carefully monitoring usage, your 12 year old girl is as likely as not looking up pics of women sucking horses much less actual normal hetero sex.
You may not want to hesar this, but it is true. By the time kids develop their interest in sex nowadays, they have no barrier to acquiring information and images.
Ok, that is more than I wanted to know. I have g-kids over here. 11 year old boy.
Tell me how to put the privacy blocks on the one computer.
I’m no expert on it. I just monitor use by looking in my grandson’s cache once in a while to make sure there’s nothing outrageous going on.
@Rick Bentley
Little TMI but remember this was twelve years ago. I had one that was nine at the time. We owned one computer and it was in the kitchen and it was monitored. The Internet doesn’t excuse bad parenting. Just like TV doesn’t cause crime and stupid videos shouldn’t result in terrorist attacks and finally guns don’t kill people, people do…..
I need to put some filters on one computer. Someone I know isn’t supposed to be on youtube and he keeps sneaking. grrrrrrrrr
I hear what you’re saying Lyssa. But the proliferation of sexual material and ease of access is such that you would have to really clamp down hard on a kid to keep them from looking at stuff that in your day or mine would be considered horrific for kids to look at. It’s a different age. A person who didn’t want their kids to hear mild pornography these days has yto go to fairly extreme measures. Similarly, it would take extreme measures to keep a kid from seeing sexual material.
“Good parenting” nowadays is understanding the way the world is and equipping your kid to have perspective on things. As they go to schools where every drug under the sun is easily available, and as they at one point or another look at pornography online.
Mistyped above, meant to say “didn’t want their kids to hear mild profanity these days has to go to fairly extreme measures”, sorry.