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  Top Court Throws out Anne Arundel Pastor's Conviction of Molesting Boy

By Andrea F. Siegel
Baltimore Sun
January 28, 2011

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-01-28/news/bs-md-ar-hill-20110128_1_molestation-conviction-apology-top-court

A divided state Court of Appeals erased the molestation conviction of a minister this week, ruling that an Anne Arundel County police detective wrongly lured Enoch Jermaine Hill into writing an apology to the boy who accused him.

In a 4-3 ruling, the majority said that Detective Patrick McLaughlin went too far when he told the pastor that the family wanted an apology and, in the same breath, said they were not interested in a trial.

From that, Hill could reasonably believe that making a statement that included an apology to the child who accused him would result in no charges "or at the least, lessen the likelihood of a successful criminal prosecution," Judge Mary Ellen Barbera wrote for the majority.

 
 

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