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Not Guilty – Mercer County Jury Exhonerates Hightstown Man of Aggravated Sexual Assault
August 13, 2010 – After a two (2) week trial, Edward Harrington Heyburn, Esq. convinced a Mercer County jury that a Hightstown man was not guilty of Aggravated Sexual Assault and related charges. It took the jury approximately four (4) hours of deliberation before it returned a not guilty verdict to each of the six (6) charges levied by the State. What the jury did not hear is that in 2009, a Monmouth County jury refused to indict Mr. Heyburn’s client for the same allegations that the “alleged victim” made in Roosevelt, New Jersey. Hon. Pedro Jimenez not only refused to tell the jury that the defendant was not indicted but allowed the State to introduce evidence of the unindicted charges to explain why the “alleged victim” did not report her story to the police for over a decade.
After the trial, Ed Heyburn said, “It was clear that the ‘alleged victim’ fabricated her story. She gave approximately seven different versions that were all inconsistent with each other.” The New Jersey State Police which patrols Roosevelt, spearheaded the investigation. Trooper Jessica Baker conceded on the stand that Mr. Heyburn’s client maintained his innocence even after that State Police lied to him. Trooper Baker admitted that it is a common tactic for the New Jersey State Police to lie to suspects to gain a confession. She and Det. Rosica said they had DNA evidence from semen in his pants. They advised him that he had left the pants at the house after a sexual assault. Mr. Heyburn’s client, embraced by innocence, told the New Jersey State Police to test the pants because there is no way that his semen could be in the victim’s house.
On cross examination, Mr. Heyburn forced Trooper Jessica Baker to admit that the entire victim statement only lasted 20 minutes. Furthermore, despite the “alleged victim’s” accusations that the client ejaculated on her hand over 1,000 times, the New Jersey State Police never went to the scene where she said the abuse occurred. The State Police never looked for semen stains on the rug or a stuffed doll the mother kept from when the “alleged victim” was young.
In an effort to save their case, the State called Lynn Taska, Ph.D. Dr. Taska is a psycologist from Metuchen that testifies to explain why an “alleged” victim of sexual assault may give inconsistent statements and testify to facts that never occurred. Interestingly, Dr. Taska offered, on crossexamination, that a “real victim” of sexual assault may be raped by one person and blame a completely innocent person. This left the door open for the possibility that the State’s complaintant was raped but by someone other than Mr. Heyburn’s client.
The not guilty verdict was the first step in restoring Mr. Heyburn’s client’s reputation.
This case is proof that justice can only be obtained when you hire a trial attorney who is ready, willing and able to defend you before a jury of your peers.
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