The child molestation charges against Spotsylvania County sheriff’s deputy Richard Earnest Lloyd Jr. were nolle prossed today in Caroline County Circuit Court.
Lloyd was charged in January with sexual battery and taking indecent liberties with a child.
But yesterday, Goochland prosecutor Nancy Oglesby, who handled the case because of a conflict of interest in the Caroline commonwealth’s attorney’s office, moved to nolle pross the charges based on a lack of evidence in the case.
[…]
“I think this is over finally,” [Lloyd’s defense attorney Carl] Witmeyer said. “I always had the utmost confidence that [Lloyd] would be exonerated from allegations he’s been facing for almost five years.”
The main evidence in the case was testimony from the child Lloyd was accused of abusing, but Witmeyer said that child had recanted since Lloyd was charged in January.
What was the origin for all this?
A bloody custody battle (Cynthia Weaver v. Richard E. Lloyd, Record No. 0224-06-2).
These charges had previously been declared unfounded by St. Mary’s Hospital, the Medical College of Virginia, the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office, the State Police Criminal Investigations Unit, and Caroline County Child Protective Services in 2004.
Consider this from the court case:
According to Dr. Fisher [a social worker], the children do not need any further active counseling or therapy regarding mother’s unfounded allegations of sexual abuse, and he opined that continued discussion of the allegations could “pathologize” the children and cause a “false positive.” He found the children were more open and communicative than when they first began seeing him and indicated they were doing better because they have not been “as exposed” to the continued allegations of abuse by mother and maternal grandmother, which abuse Dr. Fisher ruled out “within a reasonable degree of clinical certainty.”
Talk about taking vindictiveness to a new level…
As someone who has counseled fathers with Texas Fathers for Equal Rights, I can attest that the filing of false charges against men is very common.
The reason this fellow was able to escape with only his reputation sullied, is because he is a member of law enforcement. Had he been just another average Joe, the Commonwealth’s Attorney would have ruined him and destroyed his custody rights. IT HAPPENS ALL OF THE TIME.
What should happen, when the bitter, vindictive ex-wife files false charges, is for her to be equally rigorously prosecuted for perjury and filing false charges. She also should be sued in civil court for maliciously damaging the gentleman’s reputation and for harming the relationship with their children.
In almost ALL cases, once the fact that the woman lied is brought out, the Prosecutor reluctantly drops the charges against the man, but most of the time, that same Prosecutor neglects to pursue a perjury/false charge case against the woman.
Only by having the vindictive, lying woman prosecuted for perjury and then having her slapped with a million dollar civil award, will the gentleman in the Spotsy case be able to begin to re-claim his previously good reputation.
Let’s all watch and see if that lying woman, Cynthia Weaver, is brought to justice with the same vigor that Commonwealth’s Attorney’s used to destroy Mr. Lloyd.
If you want to see what a person is really like, give them a little power.
Today’s hearing was a LONG TIME COMING, but at least this part of it is done with.
Everyone cross your fingers that the judge in the custody case has enough sense to schedule an emergency hearing QUICKLY so he can see his children & get them back ASAP…
And J. Tyler Ballance & Tom James – don’t forget here, the children’s mother is law enforcement too. It’d be nice if her department looked long & hard at her role in all of this, but I’m not going to hold my breath…