- DALTON, Ga. (AP) - Even after Jim Thomas reluctantly sided with his fellow jurors
and voted to convict Wayne Cservak of molesting a 13-year-old boy, he remained
convinced Cservak was innocent.
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- So Thomas, 69, spent his own money to
hire a lawyer to appeal the case because he knew Cservak could only afford
a public defender.
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- One week into the appeal, the alleged
victim admitted he lied. Cservak was freed.
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- "I was a juror and I helped make
a wrong," said Thomas, president and co-owner of All Purpose Adhesive
Co. Inc. "It had to be righted."
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- At the trial last May, Thomas believed
prosecutors hadn't proven Cservak's guilt. He said the teen's testimony
seemed contrived and his story kept changing, while the defendant's denials
appeared believable. But Thomas could not persuade his 11 fellow jurors
to agree and after eight hours he gave in. Yet, he couldn't stop thinking
they had convicted an innocent man.
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- Thomas's first attempt to right the wrong
was to speak up for Cservak at the sentencing hearing. Cservak received
10 years in prison. He could have faced 100 years.
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- Thomas then hired lawyer Robert Adams
to handle Cservak's appeal. "It's unheard of," Adams said. "Not
only in Georgia legal history but in the entire American legal history
as far as I can tell."
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- On Dec. 29, the case was dismissed after
the alleged victim, who is the son of Cservak's girlfriend, said he concocted
the story because he did not want the two to marry.
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- The next day, Cservak and his family
met Thomas for breakfast. "He was bubbling over with happiness,"
Thomas told the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times newspaper in a story published
Saturday. "He couldn't stop grinning."
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- Cservak declined comment.
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