BishopAccountability.org
	Former Pastor Gets New Trial in Sex Case Express-News [Texas] February 1, 2007 http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA020107.pastor.newtrial.EN.3c60cf2b.html A former pastor convicted of having sex with an underage choirgirl will get a new trial, a local appeals court decided Wednesday. Overturning the conviction of Duane Hammons, the 4th Court of Appeals said the prosecutor's case against the former pastor at the Church of God in Christ relied on hearsay testimony that shouldn't have been admitted into evidence. Hammons was sentenced to 10 years' probation in 2005 after a jury found him guilty of having repeated sexual encounters with a parishioner when she was not yet 17, the age of consent. At trial, Hammons claimed the teenager was 17 when the encounters began. The girl said she was 15 when the alleged abuse began, but the defense had pointed to possible inconsistencies in the details of her chronology. A friend of the girl's and a church official had echoed her account. While their testimony was vital to the conviction, the court said, it was also impermissible hearsay.
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