Child molestation charges, and an overdue dismissal…

Investigative reporter Radley Balko writes about Bernard Baran, a man convicted in the 1980s of child molestation charges. In 2006 he was released on bond after an appeals court ruled that his trial attorney had been incompetent and that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence.

The problem with child molestation charges is that they’re difficult to win at trial. Even when a defendant has competent or even excellent counsel, getting a not-guilty verdict at trial is difficult given that juries tend to believe children who make allegations.

In this case, the prosecutor, Daniel Ford, is alleged to have engaged in serious misconduct in winning Baran’s conviction. And yet Ford still sits as a state judge in Massachusetts.

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