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Man reimbursed for time served after charges thrown out
| Friday, Aug 4 2006 10:20 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Aug 4 2006 10:49 PM
John Stoll received a check in the mail from the state of California Friday for $700,000.
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That's $100 a day for every day, 20 years in all, that Stoll spent in prison and jail on child molestation charges that were later thrown out after a hard-fought battle with the Kern County District Attorney's office.
Stoll's first stop after receiving the check was a car dealership to buy a $52,000 Volkswagen Touareg with reed-green paint and beige interior.
"I had my eye on that (car) for at least a year," Stoll said. And for Stoll it's been a long year.
Stoll has been living with his attorneys or friends on $700 a month in Social Security since he was released from custody in May 2004.
He said he would apply for jobs, but as soon as the company heard about his past, the employers would pass.
Now he hopes to build a log cabin on a piece of property he bought in Mendocino where the only sounds are the birds in the trees. He wants to invest the remainder to ensure he has security in the future.
But first a car, and second a trip to the florist to buy Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green a bouquet of forget-me-not flowers with a note reading "you win some, you lose some," Stoll said.
That's what Green said after she lost the case, Stoll said.
Green could not be reached for comment and District Attorney Ed Jagels declined comment.
Green said in an interview earlier this year that she still believes 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.
The state Victims Compensation Board voted to award Stoll $704,700 in state funds in May.
Stoll was convicted in 1985 of molesting six neighborhood boys.
He was one of 46 people charged with engaging in eight different child molestation rings in the 1980s. Most of the cases unraveled because witnesses recanted their stories and interviewing techniques were found problematic.
Five of the six alleged victims in Stoll's case said investigators pressured them into giving false stories and later recanted their testimony against Stoll. The sixth alleged victim insisted that Stoll molested him even though he could no longer remember any details.
"It doesn't make up for what I lost, but it sure can make the rest of my life a lot more fun," Stoll said.