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Sylvester Smith
Falsely accused man freed
Victims tell court
that to protect a young cousin, their grandmother made them accuse
the man who cared for them
By BARBARA BARRETT,
Staff Writer, News Observer, Nov 6, 2004
BOLIVIA -- Truth had its day
in court Friday, and a man who had been convicted 20 years ago
of molesting a pair of young girls was set free.
Sylvester Smith, 53, walked
into the chilly evening air because of the testimony of two women.
Both had accused him of sexually abusing them in 1984, when they
were 4 and 6. Both say now that it wasn't Smith, but a 9-year-old
cousin who committed the crimes.
They say they were encouraged
to accuse Smith by their grandmother, now deceased, who was trying
to protect the boy.
The case was prosecuted by
now-Gov. Mike Easley and Wanda Bryant, a state appeals court
judge. Through a spokeswoman, Easley declined to comment on the
case Friday. No one is accusing Easley or Bryant of wrongdoing.
On Friday, Brunswick County
District Attorney Rex Gore asked Superior Court Judge William
C. Gore Jr. to grant Smith a new trial. He planned to drop the
charges if his request were granted. The attorney and the judge
are not related.
It was an emotional hearing,
with about 50 relatives and friends packed into a small courtroom
in rural Brunswick County.
One of the victims, now 25
years old, testified over the objections of her mother, who still
held Smith responsible for the crimes. The other victim, now
26, testified reluctantly, saying she feared hurting her family.
During most of the testimony,
Smith stared downward or straight ahead, quietly sitting to the
right of his attorney, Roy Trest.
The victims were identified
in court, but it is the policy of The News & Observer not
to name the victims of sexual abuse.
Victim One, as she was known
in the motion, took the stand. She answered nervously at first,
but seemed to gain confidence. The district attorney asked her
how she knew Smith.
"He was my daddy,"
she answered. She said Smith dated her mother, was the father
of her younger brother and took care of her while her mother
worked.
Gore asked her about the trial
20 years ago.
Gore asked: "Did he, in
fact, when you were 4 years old, rape you?"
"No, he didn't."
"Did he have sex with
you in any way?"
"No, he didn't."
"Did he molest you in
any way?"
"No, he didn't."
She had been raped, she said,
by her cousin now a man of 29 serving a life sentence for murder.
As a child, she had told her
grandmother, who had custody of the boy, that her cousin hurt
her. She said her grandmother told her she was lying, that it
must have been Smith.
"There was a lot of pressure
coming from someone that I love."
"That being whom, ma'am?"
Gore interrupted.
"My grandmother,"
the woman said, her voice breaking.
Twenty years ago, she said,
she was confused, and she kept asking, "Are they going to
take my daddy away?"
As she testified Friday, someone
called out from the back of the courtroom, "Why are you
lying?"
The judge called for quiet,
and the woman who had called out the mother of Victim One cried
softly.
Victim One testified that she
couldn't stop thinking about Smith and the freedom he was denied
every day.
"That's something I can't
live with anymore," she said. "My heart won't allow
me to do that."
Several weeks ago, she contacted
a lawyer Trest and then the district attorney. She talked with
the other victim, her cousin, who was reluctant to come forward
but concurred that Smith was not their abuser.
And when Judge Gore asked why
it had taken her so long to tell the truth, Victim One said she
had spent time just trying to figure things out.
"I wish I could've done
it sooner," she said.
Victim Two testified later,
and only briefly. She gave brief answers but confirmed that Smith
had not abused her.
Surprise witness
Then, in a surprise to the
attorneys and family members, the judge invited Victim One's
mother to testify. She came up from the last row, swore on a
Bible and said she thought her child was wrong.
She said Smith had haunted
her by writing letters from jail proclaiming his innocence. His
family members threatened her, she said, forcing her to flee
to another state for several years with her children.
The mother said she had never
believed Smith could do such damage, but she didn't think her
own mother would encourage a child to lie.
Finally, she acknowledged under
the judge's questioning that she didn't know whether Smith had
committed the crimes only that a doctor's visit showed that someone
had hurt her little girl.
"I love my daughter,"
she said.
Right thing
to do
In closing arguments, the district
attorney talked about the "ascertainment of truth."
"She tried to tell the
adults the truth 20 years ago," Gore said.
Prosecutors at the time pushed
the case, he said, which was the right thing to do.
"But an adult another
adult manipulated the system," Gore said. "And it may
be time for us, as the system, to make it right."
He asked for a new trial and,
if granted, said he planned to dismiss the charges against Smith.
Judge Gore returned half an
hour later with a decision.
He read aloud the words "new
trial," and Smith bowed his head on the table for a long
moment. His attorneys patted his back.
And when, moments later, the
district attorney dismissed all the charges and Judge Gore declared
Smith was free to go, about four dozen family members exploded
in cheers and shouts.
Celebration
Smith pumped his fists heavenward.
Someone yelled, "Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!"
Across the courtroom, Victim
One embraced a couple of family members across the railing. She
smiled slightly, then walked quietly out a side door.
The attention was on Smith
now, and he was enveloped in hugs and smiles.
He went with his entourage
to a private room, where Trest led the group in a prayer of thanks.
Trest said he plans to ask
Easley for a full pardon.
And moments later, as sheriff's
deputies led Smith outside, a group of women took up a hymn,
their song echoing through the hallway:
"It's just a blessing.
It's called a blessing.
Praise the Lord, Hallelujah,
I'm free."
- Staff writer Barbara Barrett
can be reached at 829-4870 or bbarrett@newsobserver.com.
- © Copyright 2004,
The News & Observer Publishing Company,
a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company
Man's 1984 Child Molestation
Charges Nixed
By Associated Press, November
5, 2004
BOLIVIA, N.C. -- Prosecutors
threw out charges Friday against a man who served 20 years in
prison for the sexual molestation of two girls who recanted their
allegations.
The victims, who were 4 and
6 when they made the charges, testified that they falsely accused
the man under pressure from their grandmother because she wanted
to protect the real abuser -- a cousin of the girls.
More than 40 members of the
family of Sylvester Smith were in court when the charges against
him were dismissed. Smith's reaction to the dismissal was "a
jubilation," said his attorney, Roy Trest. "We all
are jubilant."
Smith, 53, was serving two
consecutive life sentences after being convicted in 1984. At
the time, he was the boyfriend of one of the girls' mothers and
was living with them.
Prosecutor Rex Gore asked the
younger girl Friday why she didn't come forward earlier. "I
was just afraid to," she said. "I was just afraid nobody
would believe me."
The other victim said she decided
to recant now because, "I wanted to get something off my
chest."
Gore said he will not pursue
charges against the cousin, who was 9 at the time, because he
was so young. He is serving a life sentence in state prison for
first-degree murder, Gore said.
Gore said he first heard from
one of the victims this summer, when she wrote that Smith was
being punished too harshly. About two weeks ago, the victim contacted
the defense attorney, saying the case had haunted her for years.
The grandmother was trying
to protect the cousin, but he "would not have been prosecuted
except as a juvenile," Gore said. "Nothing would have
happened to him, other than he would have gotten some treatment."
The grandmother has since died.
Gov. Mike Easley, then the
Brunswick County district attorney, prosecuted the original case,
but he is not accused of wrongdoing.
Copyright © 2004, The
Associated Press
Man freed from prison,
victims admit lying
November 05, 2004
Raleigh, NC, Nov. 5 (UPI) --
A 53-year-old man who spent 20 years in a North Carolina prison
for two child molestation convictions was exonerated and released
Friday.
Sylvester Smith was sent to
prison in 1984 on testimony of two girls who claimed he raped
them, the Raleigh, (N.C.) News and Observer reported.
A Brunswick County judge set
Smith free shortly before 5 p.m., reported WECT-TV, Wilmington,
N.C.
Brunswick County District Attorney
Rex Gore said the two victims told the judge they falsely testified
against Smith.
Smith was the boyfriend of
one of the girl's mothers. Both girls were living with him in
a Brunswick County town near Wilmington.
Gore said one victim, who now
says the real abuser was a cousin aged 9 at the time, says their
now-deceased grandmother pressured them to accuse Smith rather
than the boy.
Smith could be entitled to
as much as $400,000 from North Carolina for his troubles.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
