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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 6, 2005 Jury reverses rape conviction Defendant cleared in retrial of case involving 13-year-old girl By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune A previously convicted rapist was acquitted Friday of having sex with a 13-year-old Medford girl at her mother’s encouragement. Anthony Dewayne Smith has spent nearly the past six years in prison before this week’s retrial in Jackson County Circuit Court. The 38-year-old clasped his head in his hands and cried as he heard verdicts of not guilty on counts of second-degree rape and sodomy and furnishing liquor to a minor. "We’re very pleased," said defense attorney Don Scales upon leaving the courtroom. Scales and co-counsel Erin Olson refused to comment further on the trial’s outcome. The Oregon Court of Appeals granted Smith’s new trial this year on the premise of a legal technicality, said Jackson County District Attorney Mark Huddleston. A jury convicted Smith of the crime in 2000. Advertisement Smith still must face a charge of endangering the welfare of minor, which garnered a hung jury Friday. The district attorney has not yet decided whether to retry Smith on that count, said prosecutor Judi Harper. Meanwhile, Smith remains in the Jackson County Jail awaiting trial for an alleged assault against a fellow inmate last month. After sobbing out her testimony earlier in the week, the young woman, now 19, was not present for the verdict, having returned to her home on the East Coast. Harper argued the girl’s mother subjected her to sex with Smith in exchange for drugs and alcohol. The prosecutor, however, presented no DNA evidence linking Smith to the crime. Defense attorneys asked the jury of seven men and five women not to be swayed by feelings of sympathy for the alleged victim and to focus on inconsistencies in her story. Jurors also were left to ponder if winning an unrelated lawsuit in 1999 for being sexually molested when she was 9 years old motivated the girl to make false accusations of rape in this case. "Please don’t let her tears determine your verdict," Olson said. Smith even felt sorry for the girl and lamented that he didn’t prevent sex acts between her and two other men at her mother’s east Medford apartment on July 20, 1999, Olson told the jury. Lamar Esquire McKinzie, 36, and Johnny Lee Carter, 45, were convicted of rape in the case, along with the girl’s own mother, 44-year-old Lynda Darlene Hill. "I’m just really disappointed," Harper said of Smith’s acquittal. Throwing out Smith’s original conviction, appellate judges said Circuit Court Judge Patricia Crain erred in Smith’s 2000 trial when she allowed jurors to view a videotaped statement of the alleged victim’s testimony after Harper failed to give the required 15-day notice. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail Jury reverses rape conviction ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Ready-Made Website Templates Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers dvd-r helzberg diamonds Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Computer Security Home Equity Loans Website Hosting Slippers Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation Canadian Pharmacy Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Mortgage Calculator Free Home-Loan Referrals Online Casino News Air Purifiers Hotel/Motel Reservations Advertisement s