New story today in the San Jose Mercury News about the lawsuit against Ayres prosecutor Melissa Mckowan. This involves another child molestation case.
"Mother Sues San Mateo County DA for Dropping Child Molestation Case."
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_17408446?nclick_check=1
This story doesn't go into all the details. But suffice to say, the family was eager to have the child testify and had taken the child on a tour of the courtroom.
In the lawsuit, prosecutor Mckowan is charged with actions that some of you who have been following the Ayres case might recognize.
Remember how Mckowan said she contacted the doctors who trained with Ayres in Boston and at Yale but they said they never talked to her and that she has made false statements about what they said, in conversations they say never even took place?
Well, the family who is suing Mckowan has charged that Mckowan did the same thing in their case. For example, the family says that prosecutor Mckowan falsely claimed to the court that she subpoenaed expert child molestation witness Megan Lemar to testify for the prosecution.
In truth, the family has a signed statement from Lemar saying that she was NEVER contacted by the San Mateo District Attorney's office.
And for those who are following the Ayres case, you may recall that prosecutor Mckowan made a false statement to the mother of an Ayres victim during the trial that victim's advocate Victoria Balfour was in cahoots with Ayres lawyer and in fact before the trial had volunteered to testify for him in exchange for room and board?
Well, in the case for which Mckowan is being sued, in their lawsuit, the family charges that prosecutor Mckowan made a wildlly false allegation to the court that one of the other reasons she didn't want to try the case was because the family was concerned that the child's therapist would blackmail the family and according to Mckowan "switch sides" if the child was allowed to testify. The family is stunned by this bizarre blackmail allegation, as they continue to use the therapist. They have submitted to the court a signed declaration from the therapist herself, stating that this is false.
What many people - a
nd now the press -don't understand is why the San Mateo District Attorney's office continues to defend the prosecutor. In other DA's offices, the prosecutor would have been fired for such unethical misconduct.
On a positive note, the Northern California Innocence Project is monitoring this situation, as are other federal and state agencies.