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Cost of 20 years in prison? Try $704,700
| Thursday, May 18 2006 11:30 PM
Last Updated: Friday, May 19 2006 7:43 AM
SACRAMENTO — John Stoll moved a big step closer Thursday to getting some compensation for the 20 years he spent in prison before his conviction on child molestation charges was overturned.
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A state board voted to award him $704,700 in state funds. Under a formula spelled out in state law, that is $100 for every day he spent in state prison after his 1985 conviction in Bakersfield on charges that he molested six neighborhood boys, including his son.
“It feels pretty good,” Stoll said afterward.
“I think everybody did the right thing here today,” he added, even though the board declined his attorneys’ request to increase the award to cover the time he spent in jail before he was convicted.
The money must be appropriated by the Legislature before a check can be written, but Stoll’s award appears to be on a fast track.
An omnibus bill to pay nearly 500 more or less routine claims against state agencies that is well along in the legislative process is expected to be amended Monday to include the Stoll award, said an aide to its author, Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park.
Barring an unexpected delay, the measure could be passed and signed by the governor by the end of June, and a check could be issued to Stoll soon thereafter, said Geoff Long, chief consultant to Chu’s Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Asked what he planned to do with the money, the 63-year-old Stoll, who now lives in Oklahoma, said he planned to talk to an investment adviser.
“What today is about,” he said, “is that it will make it easier for me for the rest of my life.”
Stoll has also filed a claim for more than $50 million against Kern County over the wrongful conviction, a possible prelude to a lawsuit.
Stoll was one of 46 people charged in eight alleged child molestation rings in Kern County in 1980s. He was the last of those people remaining in custody in 2004 when his conviction was overturned.
Most of the rest of the cases had fallen apart as witnesses recanted their stories and the techniques of investigators were questioned in court.
In Stoll’s case, five of the six alleged victims recanted their stories, saying investigators pressured and intimidated them into saying what the investigators wanted to hear, court records show.
Only one did not. That was Stoll’s son, who was raised by Stoll’s ex-wife and is now an adult, who insisted he had been molested by his father. Stoll’s attorneys told a state board hearing officer that the son testified he could no longer remember any details of the molestation, but insisted it occurred.
Stoll said Thursday that still hurts.
“This is not going to get my son back,” he said. “I still think about my son.”
The reversal of Stoll’s conviction and the state monetary award have made no impact on the view of Stoll’s guilt by District Attorney Ed Jagels and his staff.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green, who opposed Stoll’s release in the 2004 court case, said the award does not change her conviction that Stoll is guilty.
“Just because the rest of the world disagrees with me doesn’t matter,” she said. She insisted that the judge did not exonerate Stoll. He only reversed the conviction on grounds that the alleged victims were questioned improperly, she said.
But Stoll, reminded after the hearing that Jagels still believes he is guilty, said, “No he doesn’t. He just says that. Nobody could be that dumb.”
How much is 20 years worth? Make your voice heard on the blogs at bakersfield.com.