[Cool Teen Sites]
08/13/2001 - Updated 07:21 PM ET
Man freed after molestation testimony recanted
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A man who served nine years of a possible 24-year sentence was ordered freed Tuesday after two brothers recanted testimony that had led to his conviction on child molestation charges.
"I've got nothing to say because it won't be good," Peter Balodis said in the hall outside Montgomery County Court. "This is a slimy county."
Balodis had been free on bail after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted him a new trial last year. He had been convicted in 1991 of statutory rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corrupting the morals of a minor.
Balodis' attorney, Harvey Sernovitz, said two brothers who had accused Balodis of molesting them as boys had recanted in written and tape-recorded statements. The two were less than 10 years old at the time.
"Now that they're adults," Sernovitz said, the accusers "felt a need to come forward and say, 'Listen, this stuff never happened."'
Balodis pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor charges of simple assault and endangering the welfare of children and was sentenced by Montgomery County Judge William T. Nicholas to time served.
Assistant District Attorney Mary Fittipaldi said she agreed to those charges because they "were appropriate in this case. The defendant has served a considerable amount of time in jail and justice was served."
In granting the new trial, the state Supreme Court had ruled that an expert witness at Balodis' 1991 trial "improperly bolstered the credibility" of the one alleged victim who testified in court by saying his inconsistencies were a common sign that a child has been abused.
Both the accusers were in the courtroom Tuesday and refused to comment.
Sernovitz and Balodis' family declined to say where Balodis will live or what his plans are.
"An innocent man has spent 10 years in jail," said his ex-wife and longtime supporter, Louise Balodis of Pennsburg. "His family has suffered tremendously."