Appeals court frees St. Marys eye doc from prison

WAPAKONETA — Nearly two months after a St. Marys eye doctor began serving a 15-month prison sentence, an appeals court has ordered him to be released while an appeal seeking a new trial is considered by the court.

The 3rd Ohio District Court of Appeals issued the order late last week in the case of Douglas Wine. Although the order by the court was issued Thursday, Wine was still in prison Wednesday, according to a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Wine, 52, was convicted by a jury in October of one count of gross sexual imposition stemming from an October 2009 incident involving a then 69-year-old female relative.

“Appellant has a constitutional right of appeal and, without an opportunity to suspend sentence, a significant portion of the prison time imposed will be served prior to the appeal being heard,” Judges Stephen Shaw, Vernon Preston and John Willamowski wrote in the order.

On Tuesday, Wine's attorney, Lorin J. Zaner, of Toledo, filed his brief with the appeals court arguing Wine's conviction should be overturned because inadmissible polygraph testimony was allowed into the record. Zaner also argues that Auglaize County Prosecutor Edwin Pierce engaged in misconduct during his closing argument when he vouched for the credibility of his key witness, the victim.

The private polygraph was initiated before any criminal charges being filed and was done after Wine's wife, upon hearing of the allegation against her husband, kicked him out of the house, Zaner said. After the polygraph examiner failed to elicit a confession during the exam, Wine's wife was allowed into the exam room for a portion of the post-test interview, which was recorded and played for the jury at trial.

“During the interrogation, in the face of an irate, screaming, out-of-control wife threatening to end their relationship if he did not ‘admit' and ‘take ownership' of the accusations, the appellant made admissions in order to calm his wife,” Zaner wrote. “As soon as she started calming down, he started to retract those admissions and she went into a tirade again. Most people believe that they would never make an admission or confess to something they did not do. They do not have an understanding of the psychological issues involved.”

Zaner argued that Pierce's reference's to his key witness's credibility improperly shifts the burden of proof from the state to the defendant.

“This was basically a ‘she said, he said' situation with the issue of the videotaped interrogations playing a key role in the jury's determination. The prosecutor repeatedly made references to those tapes telling the jury, ‘Remember that tape. Remember both of those interviews,'” Zaner wrote. “He replayed the video for the jury to reinforce the appellant's lack of denials. A defendant has a right to remain silent when accused of anything that constitutes a crime. It was improper for the prosecutor to repeatedly emphasize that silence.”

Last month, Auglaize County Prosecutor Edwin Pierce dropped six additional sex charges in an unrelated case just before trial. Pierce said at the time the evidence was unlikely to result in a conviction.