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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Child/Minor Sex Abuse (incl. molestation) |
Sentence: |
1 year 10 months |
Years Imprisoned: |
1 |
Year Crime: |
1991 |
Year Convicted: |
1995 |
Year Cleared: |
2002 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Florida |
County or Region of Crime: |
Volusia |
City of Crime: |
Daytona Beach |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Dennis Brian Devlin was wrongly convicted in 1995 of lewd and lascivious assault on a child in Daytona Beach, Florida. Devlin's prosecution was based on the testimony of Eric Golden that in 1991 when he was 15, Devlin molested him at the Desert Inn Hotel -- in which he was a minority owner, and his father was the primary owner. After his conviction by a jury Dennis Devlin was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months in prison, and 10 years of probation during which he was barred from the Desert Inn Hotel and the beach in Daytona Beach. Devlon served a year in prison before he was released. In 2001 Golden and Devlin accidentally encountered each other. Golden was a recovering drug and alcohol addict, and he admitted to Devlin that he had lied about the molestation. As a part of the recovery process he felt the need to make amends to those he had wronged. Based on the new evidence Devlin filed a petition to vacate his convictions. During an evidentiary hearing in November 2001 Golden testified that he made the accusation against Devlin when he was confined at the Dosier School for Boys for arson, after an investigator with the Volusia County State Attorney's Office visited him and offered to get him released if he would provide information against Devlin. Golden said the investigator didn't care if Devlin hadn't actually molested Golden, and she “led me on to feeding me information about saying to try to get me to say what she wanted me to say on tape, or dates, or did this and that and everything else.” Golden said he manipulated the system by falsely accusing Devlin in order to get out of Dosier. During the hearing Golden's counselor at Dosier in 1995 testified that Golden told him that Devlin had not molested him. Evidence was also introdued by Devlin that prior to his trial the investigator had been fired for misconduct in an unrelated case. Circuit Judge Judge Shawn Briese granted Devlin's petition on March 15, 2002, and with the prosecution's concurrence, dismissed the charges -- terminating Devlin's probation. In April 2011 Devlin pled gulty in federal court of sexual exploitation of a child. Devlin, 60, was sentenced in July 2013 to 15 years in federal prison, lifetime supervised release upon his release, payment of $6,000 restitution, and forfeiture of his share in the Desert Inn Hotel valued at $1.55 million. The charges were based on Devlin and a male accomplice persuading a 13-year-old boy to disrobe and pose for videos and still photos. During a raid of Devlin's residence in February 2011 federal agents found that hidden in the ceiling of Devlin's bathroom were images of the boy on an iPod, along with CDs and DVDs of child pornography." |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"Circuit Judge Judge Shawn Briese granted Devlin's petition on March 15, 2002, and with the prosecution's concurrence, dismissed the charges." |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
41 |
Age When Released: |
42 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Owner's molestation conviction tossed out, By The Associated Press, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 16, 2002" |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org