Court of Appeals hears Swain case

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The Michigan Court of Appeals listened to the prosecutor's case against Lorinda Swain, the West Michigan woman who said she was wrongly convicted of sexually assaulting her son, then had that conviction overturned.

Swain appeared for the hearing Wednesday. She always maintained her innocence.

"I know God knows I didn't do this," Swain said.

The Calhoun County prosecuting attorney is challenging Judge Conrad Sindt's decision to grant Swain a new trial. The judge found compelling evidence that she is likely innocent, said David Moran, Swain's attorney.

"So, they're saying because she had an incompetent attorney who blew a prior motion, Judge Sindt should refuse to hear any evidence of innocence," Moran said in a phone interview Tuesday.

24 Hour News 8 brought the Swain case to light. In 2002, she was sentenced to 25 to 50 years for sexually assaulting her adopted son, Ronnie. He later recanted his story, admitting he lied to cover up his own actions.

The innocence clinic at the University of Michigan specializes in cases that are not DNA exonerations, and was able to get Sindt to grant Swain a new trial. Her attorney's failure to call two witnesses at her trial -- both who had evidence suggesting Swain's innocence -- played a role in the granting of a new trial.

Lawyers with the clinic say the prosecution's appeal is another method to try and keep Swain in jail.

"Judge Sindt is a former prosecutor himself," Moran said. "He's not the sort of person who's likely to declare somebody's innocent. But he did in this case. And we would have hoped that would be a wake-up call to the prosecution in this case -- that there really was a problem, but unfortunately, they seemed determined to fight us all the way."

The Court of Appeals will issue a ruling sometime in the future.

"Of course I'd like to have my license, be able to get a job, and not worry about being on tether ... you know what I mean," Swain said Wednesday. "But that's not what worries me or bothers me as much as not knowing for sure."