Monday, December 7, 2009
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Albany Herald
Photo by Bill Strickland
All charges against the Rev. Joseph Howard, the pastor accused of hiring two men to burn Trinity Metropolitan Baptist Church, have been dropped by the district attorney's office following an 11th-hour disclosure that brought into question the credibility of the state's key witness, officials say.
Howard was set to go on trial Monday in connection with a conspiracy to burn down the church on New Year's Eve 2007.
But at 11 a.m., a representative of the U.S. Attorney's Office hand-delivered a package to prosecutor Christopher Cohilas that contained a conversation between co-defendant Vincent Jackson and an unidentified party that was surreptitiously recorded sometime before the trial was set to begin.
"This recording caused irreparable harm to the credibility of our witness," Cohilas said. "So the decision was made to drop the charges."
Cohilas was quick to point out that dropped charges don't speak to the innocence or guilt of the defendant.
"I just want to be clear, by no means is our decision to nol-pros (drop) the charges a statement of innocence in this case," Cohilas said. "My job is not to win but to do what's right, to make the tough decisions and, given this recording, the right decision was to disclose it to the court and end the case."
Howard was accused of paying Jackson and Curtis Jones to set fire to the church, which was set to go on the auction block later that week.
More like this story
- Arson charges dropped ( December 7, 2009 )
- Trial set for church arson ( December 1, 2009 )
- Jury to begin deliberations ( December 21, 2009 )
- Chief assistant DA making move to private practice ( March 22, 2010 )
- Jury finds Sloan guilty ( November 18, 2009 )
