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| Convicted Child Molester Ordered Released from Calif. Prison |
| By Associated Press / The Desert Sun |
| Published: 07/30/2003 |
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judge ordered a convicted child molester sentenced last year to six years in prison released due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling returning the statute of limitations to decades-old molestation cases. Calif. Superior Court Judge James Hawkins on Friday signed an order for Roy Lee Lesner's release, pending a formal reversal of his conviction. Lesner was appealing his case at the time of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Karen Lesner testified at her father's trial last year. Her 25-year-old half-sister, the victim, was sexually abused, starting at age 5, Karen Lesner said. The victim now lives in another state. A jury found Roy Lesner, 61, guilty of two felony counts of a lewd act with a child under 14 and acquitted him of a third count. A judge sentenced him last August. Lesner had asked to be castrated and placed on probation. Lesner said her father also was prosecuted in 1981 for sexually abusing her and an older sister when they lived in San Diego. That case ended with Lesner pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and being placed on probation. In Riverside County the high court's ruling affected 11 cases, five of which have been dismissed. Until 1993, sex crimes could not be prosecuted in California after three years had lapsed. But the state Legislature changed the law that year, making it possible to prosecute people accused of committing such crimes against children years earlier. Under that law, an adult could at any time present evidence of having been the victim of sexual abuse before the age of 18. Prosecutors then had a year to file charges. In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that features of the law produce the kind of retroactivity the Constitution bars. The ruling does not affect the prosecution of alleged crimes committed after the 1993 law took effect. As an example, a person could be prosecuted 10 or 20 years from now for a crime that occurred in 1993 or later. |
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