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An Ohio judge dismissed charges against two people who spent years in jail but whose lawyers say were falsely accused of sexually abusing children from a Head Start program.
Nancy Smith, 64, and Joseph Allen, 68, were accused by a woman of molesting her daughter and other Head Start pupils in the early 1990s.
But Lorain County Judge Chris Cook said he dismissed the charges because new evidence would not support convictions if new trials were granted.
Cook cited affidavits signed by the woman’s son and her ex-husband that said Margie Grondin, who now goes by the last name of Perazzola, coached her daughter to accuse Smith and Allen of abuse in the early 1990s.
Smith spent 15 years in prison and Allen a total of 23 years behind bars.
Smith, in an agreement with prosecutors, was found guilty of lesser charges in 2013 and was allowed to remain free. Allen, also was convicted of lesser charges, but was ordered back to prison with a parole date in 2023. Cook released him on a personal bond in December.
The abuse case began in May 1993 when Margie Grondin told cops that Smith had driven her daughter and other young children on a Head Start bus to a home where they were sexually abused.
Grondin’s ex-husband, Dino Grondin Sr., said he witnessed the woman coaching her daughter.
“Margie was persistent in trying to get her daughter to agree with what she said happened,” he said. “Margie told me that she was going to ‘get paid’ after the case was over.”
Her son, Dino Grondin Jr., said Grondin coached his sister and other Head Start children in a makeshift classroom in her home’s basement.
“The kids had to say the allegations of sexual abuse the way she wanted them to say in order to advance the game,” Dino Grondin Jr. said.
with Post wires
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