Saturday, April 29, 2000
Ex-con acquitted of rape counts
Accusers lacked evidence
By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — Led back to the jail to claim his belongings, a grinning Robert Glass declared he was a “lucky man” after being acquitted of sex charges Friday.
After a two-day trial, Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson said the evidence was insufficient to find the convicted killer guilty of rape and gross sexual imposition charges.
Jailed since late January, Mr. Glass, 42, was accused of fondling a 17-year-old Hamilton Township girl when he lived at her parents' house, and a 32-year-old woman who was a friend of the teen's family. He was charged with two counts each of gross sexual imposition and rape.
But defense lawyer Konrad Kircher had argued that his client made sexual advances after the girl and woman showed interest in him. The rape charges didn't fit because the girl and woman were willing, he said.
In closing arguments Friday, Mr. Kircher questioned the accusers' motivations for reporting the incidents. He said the woman had “lover's remorse” after learning from the teen's mother that Mr. Glass was arrested for having sexual contact with her daughter.
Mr. Kircher also maintained the teen's mother encouraged the 17-year-old to accuse Mr. Glass of sexual improprieties so that Mr. Glass would be jailed and her own affair with him wouldn't be exposed.
Mr. Glass testified Friday that he began an affair with the mother, a former girl friend from high school, after he returned to Warren County in November. An investigator said the woman denied having sex with Mr. Glass.
He was released from a Florida prison in July after serving 10 years of a 30-year sentence for beating a Jacksonville man to death and robbing him during a drug deal in 1989.
Mr. Glass moved in with the teen's family in December. The 17-year-old, who is now 18, immediately started showing romantic interest in him, he said.
Assistant Prosecutor Joanne Hash said the lack of physical evidence and additional witnesses made the case difficult to win.
“From the beginning it was a matter of the credibility of witnesses,” she said. “The defendant was much more sophisticated and accustomed to the criminal justice system than (his accusers) were.”
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