Saturday, May 08, 1999
Ex-officer awaits verdict in sex case
Judge takes weekend to decide whether accusers are truthful
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A judge will decide Monday whether former Cincinnati Police Officer Patrick Knight is guilty of coercing women into sex by threatening to arrest them.
After hearing nearly four weeks of testimony, Judge Robert Kraft said he will take a few days to review the evidence.
The judge will decide the case himself because Mr. Knight chose to have a trial without a jury.
In closing arguments Friday, attorneys on both sides repeated the claims they have made throughout the trial.
Defense attorney Merlyn Shiver decker said the four women who accused Mr. Knight were drug addicts, alcoholics and admitted liars who were out to get the former officer.
“There are some stories that are believable and there are some stories that aren't,” Mr. Shiverdecker told the judge. “This defies imagination.”
But assistant prosecutor Chris McEvilley said Mr. Knight chose his victims because he knew no one would believe them.
She said their stories cannot be dismissed simply because they have a history of run-ins with the law.
“That's why he picked them,” Ms. McEvilley said. “The question now, Your Honor, is who are you going to believe?”
Mr. Knight is charged with sexual battery and bribery involving four women he allegedly picked up while on duty and coerced or attempted to coerce into sex.
Judge Kraft this week threw out a bribery charge involving one of the women after Mr. Shiverdecker argued she had misidentified Mr. Knight in court.
Mr. Shiverdecker said many other inconsistencies in testimony and evidence suggest the other women also should not be trusted.
“There is no reason to believe them,” he said. “They sing a different song every time.”
Ms. McEvilley said the judge must consider that four different women who did not know one another told such similar stories.
“There is only one explanation,” she said. “And that is, these four women are telling the truth.”
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