Man's imprisonment ends after woman admits lie

A man who was sent to prison on the word of a then-15-year-old girl is free today because she finally admitted she fabricated the story of a sexual assault.

David Abernathy served eight years of a life sentence in prison after being convicted in 1991 of sexually assaulting the teenage daughter of a friend.

The woman, now 23, admits the tale was a lie she concocted in a convoluted scheme to get back at her stepfather, who she said had molested her beginning at age 12, and to coerce her mother to move back to California.

The scheme worked. Her stepfather, who pleaded guilty to molesting her, was no longer a part of the family and the girl and her mother returned to California.

But defense attorney Mace Yampolsky said that Abernathy was caught up in the events and "was sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit."

Yampolsky has been seeking a new trial for Abernathy since the woman recanted her story two years ago and District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski had scheduled a hearing for Tuesday that likely would have resulted in the ordering of a new trial.

But with the woman waiting in the hallway to testify, the case was resolved in a plea bargain that gave Abernathy the certainty of freedom.

He pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor count of lewdness with a minor, but did so under a legal provision that does not require him to admit any wrongdoing. He was immediately sentenced to the time he already had served and ordered released from custody.

"Although we could have won at a new trial, there are no guarantees," Yampolsky said. "I helped an innocent man walk out of prison and he's a happy man."

In a 1996 deposition, the woman admitted that Abernathy "is in prison because I have wrongly accused him. I had made up a story saying that David had raped me, molested me and something like that."

When asked why she finally came forward, the woman responded, "Honesty and a clear conscience ... and to know that he's free."

The woman, who is married and living in California, does not face criminal charges because of her admission that she lied because the statute of limitations on perjury is three years.

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