Dayton Daily News
Tuesday, Feb. 13, 1996
Front Page, top story
Sex abuse case to be revisited
By Janice Haidet Morse
Could a Huber Heights couple serving life in prison for perverted sex
acts with children be innocent?  That is the question that will be
debated at a hearing beginning today.
Lawyers representing Jennifer Wilcox and Robert Aldridge will argue
that their clients' 1985 convictions be voided because some alleged
victims now say police and prosecutors forced them to lie on the
witness stand.  An expert witness, scheduled to testify for the
defense, calls the case "Ohio's example of sex hysteria," and compares
it to other infamous cases in which child sex-abuse allegations were
later found to be fabricated.
Eric Vogann, who was a teen-ager living in the neighborhood in 1984
when the allegations were made, is expected to testify that the furor
surrounding the case was so intense that a vigilante mob tried to
castrate him when he was suspected of abusing the children, a court
document says.
Jim Knight, a spokesman for the Montgomery County prosecutor's office,
wouldn't talk about the Wilcox-Aldridge case except to say, "These
people were convicted in a court of law... and we will be defending
the upholding of that conviction."  Huber Heights police also declined
comment.
The hearing, expected to last about four days in Montgomery County
Common Pleas Court, stems from a motion filed in 1994, which includes
sworn statements recanting testimony of three of the six victims who
testifed against Wilcox and Aldridge. John, Jason, and Justin
Chronopoulos now say that, as children, they made false statements
against the couple.  The Chronopouloses are now adults; defense
lawyers said a court order prohibits them from interviewing the other
alleged victims.
On the strength of the youngsters' testimony, Wilcox and Aldridge were
convicted on 24 counts of sexually abusing children at the Glenburn
Green Co-Operative apartments.  Each is serving multiple life terms.
A 1986 appeal by Aldridge failed, but this latest one offers
previously undisclosed evidence that could exonerate the couple and
discredit witness' statements, said Harry Reinhart, a Columbus
attorney representing Aldridge.
Reinhart said he has been working pro bono - without compensation - on
the case "to try to correct a terrible miscarriage of justice."
The highly publicized, emotionally charged jury trial ignited
community outrage when bizarre details fo the alleged abuse came to
light more than a decade ago.
The children told how, at knife-point, they were forced to have sex
with each other and with the couple.  They also said that the couple
took nude photos of them - but no photos were found.  Testimony also
included allegations that Wilcox rubbed a white cream all over the
children's nude bodies, gave girls a shot in the vagina with something
that looked like a doctor's needle, and made them drink some type of
bitter liquid.
Dr. Richard A. Gardner, a nationally recognized child psychiatrist and
author of several books including "Protocols for the Sex Abuse
Evaluation," is expected to testify at the hearing.
Gardner said that Aldridge and Wilcox, who lived together in a common-
law marriage, had no history that would indicate such deviant
behavior.  They display only normal heterosexual tendencies, Gardner
said, and no evidence of pedophilia, or sexual attraction to children.
Names of 22 children and 24 adults in the apartment complex were
listed during the investigation, and "literally every male in the
complex was either alleging his child was abuse or he was being
accused of abusing children himself," Reinhart said.
Gardner said the case reminds him of three notorious sex-abuse
fabrication cases:  California's McMartin case, North Carolina's
Little Rascals case and New Jersey's Kelly Michaels case.
"The phenomenon of self-perpetuating rumor is identical in all of
these cases," Gardner said.
He said that the children in the Wilcox case also lacked the emotional
or behavior problems typically displayed by victims of child sexual
abuse.
"I've seen a lot of cases of bona fide sexual abuse and this is not
one of them," Gardner said in an interview from his office in
Cresskill, N.J.
***********
CASE CHRONOLOGY
1985:  Jennifer Wilcox and Robert Aldridge, then ages 23 and 20, are
charged with multiple counts of rape and gross sexual imposition
involving four children under the age of 13.  Six children from their
Huber Heights apartment complex testify against the pair, alleging
bizarre sex acts and nude photography.  A jury convicts the pair on
the strength of the youths' testimony.  The defendants receive
multiple life sentences.
1986:  An appeal by Aldridge fails.  Aldridge questioned the
children's competency to testify.  But appellate judges said the
youths did pass competency tests.
1994:  After three of the six witnesses signed sworn statements
recanting the testimony they gave as children, Wilcox's lawyers ask
that her conviction be set aside.
1995:  Aldridge's lawyers join Wilcox's appeal.
1996:  A hearing is set to begin today.  Lawyers for the couple will
argue that the convictions resulted from "sex hysteria" and they say
they intend to present new evidence to exonerate the pair and
discredit the witnesses' testimony.  Prosecutors say they stand by the
jury's decision and they plan to argue to see that it is upheld.
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