Swain gets new hearing, remains free

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) - Lorinda Swain will remain free on bond and will get a new hearing on charges she sexually molested her son nearly a decade ago.

Judge Conrad Sindt, who released her from prison in 2009, made the ruling in a Calhoun County courtroom Monday, and declined the prosecutor's request to send her back to prison.

After the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal, Swain was back in a Calhoun County courtroom fighting attempts by the prosecutor to put her back in prison after nearly two years of freedom.

Swain, who was convicted of molesting her son and spent seven years behind bars, has steadfastly denied the allegations. Her son -- the main witness against her -- has repeatedly recanted his testimony, as has his brother.

In court Monday, Swain's attorney claims her former boyfriend, Dennis Book, was inside the house when the alleged incidents happened. But, the attorney said, a now-deceased Calhoun County detective did not tell Swain's original attorney, and Book would have testified the sex assault did not happen.

The break-up between Swain and Book, who lived together in the mid-1990s, was not amicable.

"He was no fan of Ms. Swain's at the time he got this phone call," said Bridget McCormack of the Innocence Project. "But he absolutely told the police that this didn't happen."

But Book's statement allegedly made to a Calhoun County Sheriff's detective never made it into the final report or court records.

But the prosecutor said the attorney knew about the boyfriend and should have called him, despite the fact Swain and the man had broken up.

"Mr. Book's name was known," said assistant prosecutor Jerry Kabot. "Mr. Book's name was a name that even the defendant Lorinda Swain has mentioned back at the time of trial."

"This is not new evidence," the prosecutor said.

"I always wondered why the prosecution hadn't called Dennis," Swain said Monday. "But I had no idea it was because they investigated him and he had told the truth that he knew that didn't happen."

In previous, similar motions, the State Court of Appeals sided with the prosecutor. But on this day, Judge Sindt sided with Swain's current attorney.

The Michigan Innocence Project is helping Swain in her attempt to stay out of prison and win a new trial.