Thursday's Internet Edition, July 24, 2008.
case to be dismissed
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Publisher - A Looneyville man charged with fondling a 5-year-old girl will not be tried a second time after the child’s mother said she did not want her daughter to have to testify again.
Robert Gary Hathaway, now 63, was indicted in 2006 on a charge of first-degree sexual abuse that alleged he fondled the child in March of that year. The child told authorities she awoke to find Hathaway at her bedside.
Hathaway went on trial in June of last year, when prosecutor Mark Sergent called the girl, her mother and the investigating officer, Lt. Jeff Smith of the Roane Sheriff’s Dept., to testify.
Hathaway did not testify and his attorney, public defender Teresa Monk, did not call any additional witnesses in the one-day trial.
The 12-member jury deliberated that afternoon and the next morning before informing Roane Circuit Judge David Nibert they were deadlocked and could not reach a verdict.
The case was set for retrial in February and again in March. It was postponed once because a witness was not available and another time because Sergent was ill.
Sergent informed Nibert last month that the child’s mother had asked that the case be dismissed rather than have the child take the witness stand a second time.
Nibert granted the dismissal on Monday.
