PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A judge has acquitted a 31-year-old Portland Public Schools employee accused of molesting a 7-year-old developmentally disabled girl in a school bathroom.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge David Rees on Wednesday found Brett Christy-Hamilton not guilty of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.
Christy-Hamilton declined to comment after the six-day trial. His lawyer Stephen Houze said it was “a textbook example of how an innocent person can be charged with a heinous crime he did not commit.”
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports (https://goo.gl/YHGlcV) that Christy-Hamilton, a paraeducator assigned to help the student throughout the day, was accused in November 2015 of molesting the girl while accompanying her to the bathroom.
Prosecutors said that despite the girl’s speech impairments, she could be understood by her mother.
The defense had argued it was impossible that the girl could have offered such a detailed account of what happened.
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Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, https://www.oregonlive.com
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