CLEVELAND — A judge in Ohio will consider whether to grant new trials for two people who spent years in prison on disputed child sex-related charges, which if granted will lead to a county prosecutor dismissing all charges against them.
Nancy Smith, 64, and Joseph Allen, 68, were found guilty in 1994 of rape and other charges related to allegations that they both molested young children who rode Smith’s Head Start bus. She allegedly would bring the children to Allen’s home in Lorain.
With no physical evidence tying Smith and Allen to the alleged crimes, their attorneys have said they were convicted almost solely on the testimony of four Head Start students who provided conflicting stories on the witness stand.
Jurors deliberated around six hours before finding them guilty after an eight-day trial. Smith was sentenced to 30 to 90 years in prison, Allen to five consecutive life sentences plus 22 to 50 years. Unsuccessful appeals followed.
They have both maintained their innocence since their arrests. Smith told her defense attorney at her and Allen’s first court appearance together that she had never seen him before.
Lorain County Judge D. Christopher Cook said in a ruling on Wednesday he would evaluate the new trial motions on their merit while conducting an independent evaluation. He wrote that Smith and Allen have presented “significant, probative evidence” on their behalf.
Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson, who was elected last November after promising to reconsider Smith and Allen’s cases during his campaign, has said in court he would ask Cook to dismiss the charges if new trials are granted.
Smith’s attorney, Mark Godsey, in a statement Thursday called it a “great ruling” for Smith and Allen and “the last step before what I hope and expect to be the end of their journey with this 27-year nightmare.”
Allen’s attorney, Ricky Parsons, said “we are very hopeful for a positive result.”
Messages were left with Tomlinson’s office.
Reports of child sex abuse cases were much in the public eye at the time of Smith and Allen’s original trial in 1994. The parents of more than a dozen Head Start students accused Smith and Allen of abuse.
Head Start is a federally funded program to help prepare toddlers and young children from low-income families for school.
The charges were brought after Lorain police Detective Tom Cantu found records and other evidence, including interviews with numerous Head Start students, that led him to conclude no abuse had occurred. At the urging of a woman who filed the original police report and began contacting local news outlets, the Lorain police chief promoted Cantu, removed him from the case and assigned new detectives to investigate.
In 2009, a different Lorain County judge dismissed the charges altogether when ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court to fix sentencing errors.
The Supreme Court subsequently ruled Judge James Burge lacked the authority to dismiss the cases. Smith and Allen were resentenced in 2013 under a different statewide Supreme Court ruling. Their attorneys and prosecutors struck a deal to amend their sentences to lesser charges.
Smith was sentenced to time served and has remained out of prison. Allen was returned to prison with a parole date in 2023. Cook freed Allen last week on a personal bond with GPS monitoring.
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