After about 45 minutes of deliberation, a jury returned a not-guilty verdict in the sexual-battery trial of a former head of security at Columbus Air Force Base.
As he fought to keep back tears after the trial, 46-year-old Robert Steven Belew said the next step is to begin the custody battle for his 8-year-old son.
“I”ve got to start the fight all over again. But I can now,” the former military police officer said.
Belew, of 187 Westwood Circle in Saltillo, was wrongfully accused of showing the then-11-year-old girl pornographic movies and sexually abusing her from 2006 to 2007 while she, he and his former wife, Mary Belew, lived in Lowndes County.
The Dispatch does not identify the alleged victims of sexual crimes.
After the verdict was stated, the girl, now 15, broke down and buried her head against her natural father”s chest.
“Justice was not done here today,” said the man, who declined to give his name.
The case has been in the works since January 2009, when the former Caledonia Middle School student filed charges with the Lowndes County Sheriff”s Office.
Because of the trial, Belew has not seen his and his wife”s son since charges were filed, and lost his job as director of security at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, he said.
“My professional career is over,” he said while on the witness stand Tuesday. “I haven”t seen my son in two years.”
While the 12-member jury unanimously decided in favor of Belew, his attorney, Steve Farese, emphasized that “there are no winners.”
“His life has been destroyed,” Farese continued. “This is the first day of the rest of his life.”
In closing arguments, Farese pointed out that the girl, now 15, made her accusation a month after Belew said he wanted custody of his and his ex-wife”s 8-year-old son.
No physical evidence of sexual abuse was introduced in the trial, although the plaintiff”s former best friend testified that the plaintiff, in 10th grade, said Belew would “sexually touch her.”
On the stand, Belew pleaded with jurors to accept his innocence while going over his military background and numerous service awards he had received.
When his attorney asked whether he sexually assaulted the girl, Belew turned to face the jury.
“No sir, I did not,” he said.
“Would you ever?” his attorney asked.
“No sir,” Belew replied. “It”s not in me.”
Belew said he often baby-sat the girl for a couple hours after school because she had no family in the county and it was “the gentlemanly thing to do.”
Farese made several motions to dismiss the trial because of a lack or corroborative evidence, all of which were dismissed by Circuit Court Judge Lee Howard.
“This is so maddening,” he told jurors, speaking of the lack of evidence in the trial. “I want to lay on the floor and kick my feet. That”s what I really want to do.”
Farese compared the trial to the Salem witch trials and said the prosecution had “diddley” in substantial evidence.
There were also several inconsistencies between both the girl”s testimony and her mother”s and their written statements, which Farese used to attack their credibility.
During her closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Rhonda Hayes-Ellis described in graphic detail what Belew was accused of doing while the girl sobbed quietly in the audience.
Hayes-Ellis exhorted jurors before their decision to consider what the girl had to endure just to bring the charge against Belew.
“(Victims) become the attacked,” she said. “They are put on trial.”
That”s what happened in this case, she added.
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