NORTH CAROLINA
WFMY

Romando Dixson, Asheville Citizen-Times

A judge on Monday dismissed all charges and vacated the sentence of a man who has spent more than 20 years in prison on convictions of multiple sex crimes against three children.

Michael Alan Parker dropped his head and wept as Judge Marvin Pope announced his decision in Buncombe County Superior Court. Parker’s lawyer, Sean Devereux, expects him to be released Tuesday from Craggy Correctional Center

“I’m elated that justice has been finally served,” said Parker’s brother, Larry Wayne Parker Sr.

Devereux said Parker, 57, was convicted during the satanic ritual abuse frenzy of the late 1980s and early ’90s and not a single accusation of satanic ritual sexual abuse has proven to be true. All of the defendants originally imprisoned have had their convictions overturned, and Parker may be the last one, Devereux said.