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May. 07, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Court overturns rape conviction

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO -- A federal appeals court has overturned the child rape conviction of a Carlin man, saying DNA testimony from a Washoe County forensic scientist was misleading.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave prosecutors six months to retry Troy Don Brown or release him after 14 years in prison.

Brown, 36, was accused of raping a 9-year-old the girl at her trailer in 1994 while her mother was at a tavern.

An Elko County jury found Brown guilty of two counts of sexual assault, for which he received two consecutive life sentences.

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    • At the trial, Renee Romero, a DNA expert and head of the Washoe County crime lab, testified that Brown's DNA matched the DNA found in the victim's underwear, and that "1 in 3 million people randomly selected from the population would also match" that DNA, according to court documents.

    After the prosecutor pressed her to put this another way, Romero testified that the chance of the DNA being from Brown was "99.99967 percent."

    The appeals panel, in its 2-1 ruling issued Monday, said Romero's testimony on the nearly 100 percent likelihood it was Brown created a "fallacy" that misled the jury.

    "In fact, the former testimony (1 in 3 million) is the probability of a match between an innocent person selected randomly from the population; this is not the same as the probability that Troy's DNA was the same as the DNA found in (her ) underwear, which would prove his guilt," the judges said.



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    Hotcop wrote on May 07, 2008 07:51 PM: He will do it again. He is a sick man and there is no cure for this. He will move down here to Las Vegas and look for a single working mother that is an alcholic. He will wait for her to go down the street to get a drink and find a new daddy for her baby. While she is gone he will do it again. It is that easy, because there is that many stupid women in this town.


    urnuts wrote on May 07, 2008 03:15 PM: That is nice to read - a child rapists may soon be walking the streets again. I still say - let's give all criminals amnesty. It would save the state millions. And they say crime never pays. Stone this basta** to death, and cut his head off.


    Vegas Native wrote on May 07, 2008 02:19 PM: Well, you could look at it this way...at the time of the offense there were fewer than 3 million people in Nevada, so Troy Don Brown was the only possible match in the state. Try him again but don't ask the second question and you still get a conviction.
    Do you really think this means he didn't rape that little girl?


    Ted wrote on May 07, 2008 01:29 PM: Someone needs to investigate the education and qualifications of Ms. Romero. And then look into how far her qualified immunity at trial really does extend. She should be fair game for a large civil suit by Mr. Brown.


    pee ewe wrote on May 07, 2008 01:03 PM: At the trial, Renee Romero, a DNA expert and head of the Washoe County crime lab, testified that Brown's DNA matched the DNA found in the victim's underwear, and that "1 in 3 million people randomly selected from the population would also match" that DNA, according to court documents.

    After the prosecutor pressed her to put this another way, Romero testified that the chance of the DNA being from Brown was "99.99967 percent."

    She lied and probally at the direction of the DA's office- they all should have to spend the same amount of time behind bars. Besides giving this man a ton of cash for taking away his life for so long he would actually feel more justice if those same people that falsely accused him were behind bars for no less than 14 yrs.