James F. Love IV
Case Details

 
I met Barbara Neal in late September, 1989, and was last with her in late November, and I never saw Barbara Neal or Sarah Adams after that except for ½ hour on the weekend before I went to prison on April 3, 1990, on another charge that was reversed in 1995. 

We wrote each other while I was in prison and I called her. My wife, Cathy, and I, had our problems. Her son found a letter to Barbara from me while he was visiting Sarah in 1991. Cathy became very angry, and we fought over that on the phone for a few months. In October 1991, Cathy gave me an ultimatum, to quit calling and writing to Barbara. I called Barbara and told her I could not call or write any more.

The next day, when I called Cathy, she stated that Sarah had come to her house and made allegations against me. When I called Barbara and Sarah, they denied it. Cathy filed for a divorce. In May 1992, Barbara admitted to me that Sarah had, in fact, made the allegations to Cathy. I quit calling Barbara.

On February 11, 1996, after having been out drinking alone, I was thinking about my daughter Anna, born to Cathy in 1990, six months after I went to prison. I had only seen her eight times before Cathy had divorced me and obtained sole custody. I became mad, and called Barbara to confront her. I told her that I wanted Sarah to tell Cathy the truth so I could see my daughter again.

Sarah was there when I called, was scared and crying, we argued and hung up. Three days later I was arrested for raping Sarah.

In February 1996 Sarah Adams accused me of performing oral sex on her when she was 11 and 12 years old. The indictment stated that these charges occurred "sometime in 1988...sometime in 1989...and sometime in 1990." The prosecution refused to disclose dates before the trial began. The only date indicated in the discovery supplied to my attorney, Tom Miller, was a police report which stated that the first time I was alleged to have done this was, "the night of November 4, 1988, at 10:30pm."

At trial, Sarah Adams did not testify to this date. She said that the 1988 charge occurred, "the week after Christmas in 1988." [tr 710, 711]. She testified that the two 1989 charges occurred each month thereafter in 1989. [tr 657, 658]. She also testified "I can't remember when the last time was." [tr 668]. This is the total extent of evidence from the 1990 charge. See timeline chart below.

I claimed that what Sarah Adams was testifying to was impossible. At trial I introduced into evidence telephone records from my mother showing the collect calls to her home beginning on December 1, 1988, and continuing until July 20, 1989, from both Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and Belize City, Belize. I introduced a U.S. passport which shows me entering the country of Belize on June 2, 1989, and leaving on July 3, 1989. The passport was stamped as being issued at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico, on May 30, 1989.

The trial transcripts also support my contentions. Sarah's mother, Barbara Neal, testified that she did not meet me until after I returned from Belize. [tr 605, 606, 645, 646]
Both Sarah and her mother testified that they met me at the same time. Sarah's testimony, although extremely vague and ambiguous, states in essence that she alleges continuing conduct starting the week after Christmas of 1988, and continuing each month after that, occurring in the spring of 1989, and throughout 1989 continuing into 1990.

Note that the spread of time she attests to, including the police report, covers at least 18 months. Sarah testified that she did not know me in 1987 because she had not yet met Cathy Kidwell's son. Note that Barbara Neal testified that she met me in "October or November 1988", and that she did not meet me until after I returned from Belize, (1989). At another point she testified that I married Cathy Kidwell on February 14, 1990, and that neither she nor her daughter had seen me for "one or two months before and after he got married."

Complicating my defense, beyond the prosecutors refusal to disclose any specific dates prior to trial, was the fact that the place I was living in Mexico was a European, Canadian and Australian resort area. Few Americans frequented the small beach where I stayed from November 17, 1988 until May 17, 1989. Further, I left by automobile from Cincinnati, Ohio on May 20, 1989, stopped to pick up my passport at the U.S. Embassy on May 30, 1989, and continued on to Belize by car, traveling alone. This trip was eight years before the allegations were made by Sarah Adams. All my records had been destroyed by then, except for a few that have been found in boxes in my mother's basement.

More Proof of Mexico Trip  Affidavits
The first affidavit is that of Yvonne Zeltner-Muller of Dintiken, Switzerland. Mrs. Zeltner was Mrs. Muller when I met her in January, 1989. She had documentation of her visit to Mexico and pictures of her vacation that include a photo of her and I sitting on the beach.
Mrs. Zeltner has married and moved since I met her in Mexico.

The second affidavit is from Cairinne Thompson, from Vancouver, British Columbia, who introduced me to Yvonne Muller in January, 1989, while she also was vacationing there.

The third affidavit comes from Angela Erwin (Peal) of Hurricane, West Virginia. Angela and I had been pen pals for many years. She had written to me in Mexico in December 1988, and I also called her collect from there.

The inside cover of a book, Home Ground, was signed and dated "Zihuatanejo, Dec. 88", by the author, Lynn Freed, who I met while in mexico.
 


 

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