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The judge also refused to issue an acquittal in the case involving sex crimes against a 12-year-old.

A judge Wednesday denied a new trial for Edwin Allen Coffey, the former Apopka police sergeant convicted in January of sex crimes involving a 12-year-old girl.

Orange Circuit Judge Stan Strickland also refused to issue a judgment of acquittal, which Coffey had requested.

A jury convicted Coffey, 40, of three counts of sexual activity with a child, felonies with a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. He also was found guilty of two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation involving a child older than 12, which carries a maximum 15-year term.

On Monday, Coffey's lawyer, Warren Lindsey, argued that the teenage victim was not credible. He also claimed that witness statements repeating her story were hearsay and should not have been admitted during the trial. The girl told several people, who testified at the trial, that Coffey had sexually abused her.

Central to the defense's case was an argument the victim had with Coffey in early February 2003.

But Strickland's opinion says the victim's reports of abuse came months before the February argument and before there was a motive to lie. Therefore, Strickland said, the law allowed jurors to hear the relevant testimony of the victim's friend, a school official and others.

Because no physical evidence tied Coffey to the sexual abuse, jurors had to consider the girl's word -- and the accounts she gave other witnesses -- against his.

Strickland wrote that if victims in such cases cannot use the testimony of people to whom they've confided, then "how can any young victim hope to stop abuse, or prevail at trial?"

"This is especially true where, as in this case, the defendant alleges that the young victim is not mentally right, obsessed with religion or fantasy, or that the victim is just a bad child or an outright liar," Strickland wrote.

If those allegations cannot be challenged, Strickland said, "then victims like this one who suffered no major physical injuries and who report the abuse to authorities more than a few days after it occurs will promptly be labeled a liar with no proof to support her position."

Blocking such corroborating testimony "does not seem to be fair or logical," Strickland wrote.

Lindsey could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But in court Monday, he said, "He [Coffey] is in fact innocent. It's just her word. There's zero, zero, zero corroborating evidence."

Coffey is free on bail until sentencing.

Strickland likely will sentence Coffey in the next few weeks, but the judge noted in his ruling that Coffey may argue for another bail at sentencing. Judges may grant an "appellate bond" if the defendant is not considered a danger to the community and if there is a "good-faith" reason that the appeal might prevail.

Anthony Colarossi can be reached at acolarossi@orlandosentinel.com
or 407-420-6218.