www.pennlive.com – After DNA testing and repeated claims of innocence, charges have been dropped against a Harrisburg man who was accused of assaulting a city police officer.
Even though he is now free of the charges, T.G., 19, spent nearly nine months behind bars after being wrongfully accused, his lawyer Shawn Dorward noted Wednesday. “All that time he lost,” Dorward said.
T.G. was arrested after a Jan. 28, 2012, incident in the 2300 block of North Fifth Street.
Police accused T.G. of deliberately backing into a police cruiser after he was pulled over for a traffic violation. They said he then dragged an officer with his car as the officer tried to arrest him, escaped and then abandoned his car a few blocks away.
Police arrested T.G. during a search of the area when an officer identified him as the driver in the traffic stop incident. A gun and heroin were found in the abandoned car, police said.
Dorward said T.G. was a victim of mistaken identity. He said T.G. was walking with a woman near his home when police approached him. T.G. had nothing to do with the traffic stop incident, Dorward said.
T.G. was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer and an array of other counts and sent to county prison. A conviction on the charges could have sent him to state prison.
In September, T.G. was released from jail after initial DNA testing failed to link him to the assault incident.
“If this had happened 50 or 60 years ago, he would have been out of luck.” – Defense attorney Shawn Dorward
Dorward said the Dauphin County District Attorneys Office didn’t agree to drop the charges until more DNA testing was done. In late February, Judge Scott A. Evans approved a dismissal request filed by the DA’s office, records show.
District Attorney Ed Marsico couldn’t immediately be reached Wednesday for comment on the case’s dismissal.
“I’m just happy for (T.G.) and his family that we have DNA testing and the science we have now,” Dorward said. “If this had happened 50 or 60 years ago, he would have been out of luck.”
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