OHIO Appeal asks for new trial in rape case

A boy was the result of the artificial insemination.
AKRON (AP)-- A man convicted of rape for impregnating his stepdaughter using a syringe could get a new trial.
Based on a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an unrelated case, lawyers for John Goff of Stow renewed an appeal in July to the 9th Ohio District Court of Appeals.
Appeal
The appeal focuses on a police officer's testimony, which included statements from Goff's wife, Narda, who refused to testify during the trial.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that testimony in which a witness repeats what someone else said could in some cases violate a defendant's right to confront a witness.
Goff's lawyers argue that he would not have been convicted if the statements from his wife had not been included in the police officer's testimony.
Prosecutors contend in court papers filed Friday that the admission of Narda Goff's statements was "harmless error" and did not affect the outcome of the case.
Says she agreed
Goff, who was convicted of rape and child endangering, is serving a 20-year prison term at the Warren Correctional Institution.
He does not deny artificially inseminating his then-16-year-old stepdaughter, Shenna Grimm, with a syringe, but maintains she agreed to the insemination. Her son, born in 1999, was to be placed for adoption.
The admission of Narda Goff's statements had been upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court in December.
Narda Goff was released from prison in 2003 after serving about eight months of a three-year sentence for complicity to commit sexual battery and child endangering.