Dennis Maher Case
Dennis Maher was arrested in November of 1983. He was charged with attempted rape and assault with a deadly weapon. He was walking down the street when he was stopped, searched and charged with possession of marijuana. Maher was then taken into the police station and held for questioning. The detectives asked him questions such as “what time did you get home, “where were you.” He then asked the detectives “what are you questioning me for”, the police then told him that one women accused him of trying to rape her and another women accused him of actually raping her.
The case stems from two assaults in lowell massachusetts. On November 16, 1983 a young woman was stopped by an unidentified man who engaged in conversation prior to sexually assaulting
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Through the investigation there was no biological evidence that could prove Maher guilty. At the end of the trial Maher was convicted of both of the crimes and later convicted of the third rape tried a month later. The third rape which occurred in Ayer Massachusetts had evidence that was introduced, but never tested. Both prosecutions were based on victim's statements rather that evidence.
In 1993 Maher wrote the innocence project who then helped him fight his case. In 1997 the Innocence project filed a motion for DNA which was denied without a hearing. In 2001 a law student found a box that contained evidence from the lowell cases in the basement of the Middlesex County Courthouse. In the box there were pants and underwear collected from both victims. Both sources of evidence were sent to Forensic Science Associates where the performed DNa testing.
When the results from the testing came back, the DNA from the underwear proved Dennis as not being a suspect. A few months later investigators were able to locate a slide from the scene of the Ayer rape. The slide was sent to Orchid Cellmark for testing. When the results came back from the test on the slide, it proved that Maher did not sexuall assult the young woman. After all of the evidence was reviewed Maher was granted a new trial in which all the charges were dropped and he was then freed from
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