Friday, July 16, 1999
Rape victim recants, frees man after 10 years
She claimed he was innocent since 1992
BY TANYA BRICKING and DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Johnny Reeves sits at Ted's Place, a downtown bar, after his sudden release.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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Johnny Reeves headed for the nearest bar and ordered a cold Coke as soon as he was freed Thursday — 10 years after he was convicted of raping a girl who has said since 1992 that he's innocent.
He sat down at the bar across the street from the Hamilton County jail and paid with a check for $16.78, the balance of his prison commissary fund.
The bartender handed him his change, and he rubbed a newly minted quarter between his fingers, almost mesmerized by it.
“I've been away awhile, haven't I?” he said.
Mr. Reeves, 51, won his freedom Thursday morning shortly after he arrived in court for a hearing to determine whether he should be classified as a sexual predator under Ohio law.
The hearings typically last about five minutes and end with the defendant being sent back to prison.
But as Mr. Reeves sat handcuffed in his prison clothes, he was stunned to see his accuser walk into court and take the witness stand.
The woman, now 18, told the judge that her father — not Mr. Reeves — was the man who raped her 10 years ago.
She came to court after Mr. Reeves' court-appointed attorney unearthed an old statement from the victim saying he was the wrong man. Although authorities had lost track of her, it took the lawyer less than a week to find her.
The woman said Thursday her father, who committed sui cide in 1992, threatened her and warned that her family “would be sorry” if she named him as the abuser. She said he told her to point the finger at Mr. Reeves, a cousin who had moved in to help the family make ends meet.
“I was scared of my dad,” she told the judge Thursday.
Mr. Reeves was convicted of two counts of rape in 1989 after a trial before Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman.
The judge said he recalls the victim, who was 8 years old at the time, testifying against Mr. Reeves. It was that testimony, he said, that sealed his fate with the jury.
“She was an excellent witness,” Judge Ruehlman said. “But when somebody comes in and recants like that you have to do something.
“I've never had anything like this before.”
Instead of sending him back to prison for the remaining 40 years of his sentence, Judge Ruehlman immediately released Mr. Reeves and set a new trial for Aug. 26.
Prosecutor Mike Allen said he would review the case file today and decide before the trial date whether to dismiss the charges.
“She was our only witness,” Mr. Allen said. “If she is recanting, we don't have much of a case. If it's true, it's a terrible thing.”
Mr. Reeves' lawyer, Kevin Brewer, said the girl approached authorities to recant her story in 1992 while living in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.
Although police in Lawrenceburg would not comment, Mr. Brewer said they began a new investigation into the case, focusing on the girl's father. By the end of that year, the father hanged himself in his Cincinnati home.
The father is not being named to protect the identity of the victim.
Sometime later the girl gave a sworn statement to the Ohio Public Defender's Office, asserting that Mr. Reeves was innocent.
Mr. Reeves said he heard she had changed her story and he was optimistic her statement would free him.
“I was always hopeful,” he said.
But the statement languished in the file until a new trial was requested last year.
Mr. Allen said Assistant Prosecutor Heather Russell learned of the recanted testimony last year and urged the woman to stay in Cincinnati.
“Heather implored her to stay,” Mr. Allen said. “But she just left town.”
Judge Ruehlman said he scheduled a hearing for the new trial request but canceled it when the woman failed to show up.
“If we can't find her, how can we reconsider the conviction?” he said.
Mr. Brewer, who was assigned to the case only for the sexual predator hearing, found out about the woman's statement this week while checking the old file.
It took several phone calls to relatives, he said, but he managed to track down the woman within a few days. But Mr. Brewer said he didn't know whether she would show up to testify until he saw her in court Thursday morning.
“She finally came forward and told the truth,” Mr. Brewer said. “She said she hadn't spoken out before because she was afraid of her father. It was him all along.”
He said he still doesn't know why it took so long to get the woman into court. “Nobody took any initiative,” he said.
No one was available from the public defender's office Thursday to comment on the case.
Despite nearly a decade behind bars, Mr. Reeves said he is not bitter.
He said he's a better man now than he was when he was convicted in December 1989. He said he became more spiritual and remained optimistic that he would someday be cleared.
“My mind's a lot different,” he said. “It's opened up to a lot more things.”
The former cook at Country Kitchen in Carthage went to college in prison, earning a degree in hotel and restaurant management. He hopes to have his own restaurant one day.
He also was able to read historical novels in prison, something he doubts he would have done otherwise.
“It was not that bad in prison,” he said, except maybe for the food.
One of his first priorities was to change out of his prison-issued clothes.
He had no family or friends waiting for him when he was freed.
His family was not yet aware of his release. He said he planned to call a relative and see if he could stay with a cousin in Lockland for the night.
He stopped first at a bar, although he no longer drinks alcohol, and then asked which way he needed to go to walk to Fountain Square.
He stepped out into the sidewalk of a downtown street on a sunny afternoon, the same day that started out so differently, unconcerned that his plans for what comes next are unclear.
“It feels real good, nobody telling me to get away from a certain thing,” he said.
He laughed, then kept walking.
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