Mann requests new trial: Still set to be sentenced on Friday

A Sigourney man facing a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted of second- degree sexual abuse is asking that his convicted be tossed out. Gary Oldenberger, attorney for William Mann, filed a motion for a new trial and motion in arrest of judgment on September 20th. In his motion for a new trial, Oldenberger attacks the testimony by the victim in the case, stating that it was inconsistent throughout the case.

“The witness’s description of the alleged acts presented at trial was entirely inconsistent and contradictory with her trial testimony and her prior statements in that she at various times described the Defendant as standing beside her, then described the same incident with the Defendant seated facing her, and on another occasion described his body position as being in a squatting position,” Oldenberger writes. “The witness made varying statements related to whether the alleged act caused pain or not, and whether such pain was caused by a long fingernail, despite the fact that evidence presented showed that the Defendant did not have long fingernails and evidence that no scratch or injury was found during the physical examination of the witness,” he added.

Oldenberger also alleged that a witness for the state “vouched” for the credibility of the victim, testimony which has led to convictions being over turned on appeal.

“[The witness] implicitly vouched for the child witness by trying to explain inconsistencies in a child witness’s testimony as being acceptable, normal, and expected in any child witness’s testimony even though the jurors are instructed that these types of inconsistencies are evidence of a lack of credibility in a witness,” Oldenberger writes.

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