ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A Roanoke man was released from jail Thursday after a jury acquitted him in what prosecutors had argued was a case of date rape.
John Alexander Birch, 30, was found not guilty of charges of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse. He had faced a maximum punishment of three life sentences in prison.
The two-day trial in Roanoke Circuit Court boiled down to a credibility contest between a 31-year-old woman - who said she was raped and sexually abused - and Birch, who said she consented to sex after a night of drinking beer and shooting pool together.
"She was not a very believable witness, in my opinion," said Melvin Hill, a Roanoke lawyer who represented Birch.
Up to a point, both the woman and Birch gave the same account.
They met last July when she was staying at a Williamson Road motel near his home. Birch asked her out, and she agreed.
After the date, Birch returned to his home to find he had been locked out. He returned to the woman's motel room, and she agreed to let him sleep on a chair.
From there, their stories differed drastically.
The woman said she awoke to find Birch on top of her, and that he raped and sexually abused her several times.
Birch, however, testified that the woman woke him up and initiated sex. He began to worry the next morning when the woman appeared upset and said repeatedly that they should not have had sex, Hill said.
According to a police officer, the woman first said she invited Birch into bed with her, but then said no to his sexual advances. But in her testimony, the woman said she never gave him permission to get in bed with her.
The jury of nine women and three men deliberated about 31/2 hours before reaching a verdict. Birch, who had been incarcerated since the July 23 incident, was released from the Roanoke City Jail a short time later.
LENGTH: Short : 43 linesby CNB