This is another clear example of how easily a false accusation can destroy a life. In 2007, 21-year-old Johnathan Montgomery was accused by his former neighbor, 17-year-old Elizabeth Coast, of sexually assaulting her seven years earlier, when she was 10 and he was 14. There was no physical evidence of any kind. A judge convicted him on her word alone and sentenced him to 45 years, suspending all but 7½. He served roughly four years before the truth finally came out. The Accusation: In October 2007, Elizabeth told Hampton, Virginia, police that in late 2000, Johnathan had sexually assaulted her at her grandmother’s house across the street from where he lived. She described graphic acts. Police investigated and charged him. There was never any physical evidence, medical findings, or independent corroboration of any kind. The case rested entirely on her testimony. The Conviction: Johnathan waived a jury trial. On June 23, 2008, a judge found him guilty of forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, and related charges. The court later imposed a 45-year sentence but suspended 37½ years, leaving an effective term of 7½ years. He began serving it shortly afterward. At sentencing, Judge Randolph T. West said: “It’s no doubt in my mind that this case was a word-against-word situation, and I hope someday if I’m not wrong — and God forbid that I’m wrong — that Mr. Montgomery tell the truth to his parents as to what occurred.” The judge convicted and sentenced a young man to years in prison while openly acknowledging the case rested solely on one person’s word and expressing residual doubt about that word. 😡 The Recantation: When she was 14, her parents caught her looking at pornography. To rationalize that behavior, she falsely claimed she had been sexually assaulted at age 10 by Johnathan. The lie stayed private for three years until she reported it to police at age 17, sticking to it through the trial. In late October 2012, while working as a civilian employee of the Hampton Police Department, she came forward and admitted the entire story was a fabrication. She claimed that religion had become a bigger part of her life and that the lie was eating her up inside. She stated clearly that nothing sexual had ever happened between them. On November 9, 2012, she was arrested for perjury and immediately fired from her police job. She pleaded guilty on May 21, 2013. On August 19, 2013, she was sentenced to five years with all but 60 days suspended and ordered to pay Johnathan $90,000 in restitution. For destroying four years of a man’s life with a complete fabrication, she was required to serve only 60 days. The court even allowed her to serve those days on consecutive weekends so she could keep working. The system went out of its way to accommodate the person who had lied under oath and ruined an innocent man’s life. Exoneration: Even with a full recantation, Virginia law at the time made immediate release difficult. On November 20, 2012, Governor Bob McDonnell granted Johnathan a conditional pardon so he could be freed while pursuing a formal writ of actual innocence. On December 20, 2013, the Virginia Court of Appeals granted the writ, vacating the convictions and removing him from the sex-offender registry. Aftermath: On February 20, 2015, the Virginia legislature passed a bill awarding him $175,440 in compensation. Four years of a man’s life were taken from him because a 14-year-old girl, after being caught looking at pornography by her parents, decided to invent a childhood sexual assault to explain it. The system accepted a pure word-against-word claim with zero physical evidence, ignored the judge’s own residual doubt at sentencing, and only corrected the injustice after the accuser finally chose to tell the truth years later. Even then, it took a gubernatorial pardon and a formal writ of actual innocence to clear his name.