County man cleared of sex abuse charges

By Chris Dumond

Published: November 18, 2008

An Appomattox County man accused of sexually abusing a young girl was cleared of all charges Tuesday morning in Lynchburg Circuit Court.

Arthur Lee Dews, 52, was charged in February with two counts of aggravated sexual battery of a child under 13. On Tuesday, however, Lynchburg Public Defender Sharon Eimer presented evidence that the alleged victim had been hospitalized for mental health problems six times in the five months leading up to the allegations.

Some of the 16-year-old girl’s problems included depression, psychosis and complaints of having multiple personalities, according to the medical records.

And while the allegations were made last year, the assaults were alleged to have happened some time between 2000 and 2003 because the girl could not remember exactly when she believed they happened.

Dews loudly answered, “No ma’am,” when Eimer asked if he had ever touched the girl.

He agreed the girl had stayed overnight at his home then and that he did take her to a movie with his own daughter once when one of the assaults was alleged to have happened, but testified that she wasn’t sitting next to him.

Judge Leyburn Mosby said that because her allegations couldn’t be supported by any other testimony or evidence and because of her psychiatric background, the case could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.