Convicted molester seeks parole as alleged victims recant testimony

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) -- John Stoll, convicted of child molestation nearly 20 years ago, is pinning his last hope of freedom on his accusers.
Prosecutors, however, said Monday that the alleged victims who now insist they were coerced into making false statements can't be trusted because time can play tricks on memory.
Stoll, 60, is up for parole next year, but authorities could send him to California's hospital for sex offenders indefinitely if his name is not cleared. He was convicted almost entirely on the statements of his child accusers, who said he abused them at parties that included sodomy and group sex.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green suggested that the witnesses' memories have grown hazy over time. She also said she would call a witness who was in prison with Stoll who would testify that Stoll "told him he had supplied the kids with pills." Four of Stoll's six accusers who testified at his trial, all now adults, said in January that investigators dogged them for hours in interviews until they fabricated stories of molestation. A fifth witness testified he has no memories of the interviews.
Green questioned the motives of alleged victims for recanting, calling as a witness a private investigator who testified that one of them asked her whether he could sue Kern County over what he went through.
However, the alleged victim, Victor Monge, testified he had never sought legal advice about suing the county.
The sixth accuser is Stoll's son Jed, who was 6 at the time he testified. Jed Stoll still insists his father molested him and is expected to be called as a prosecution witness.
Stoll blames a bitter custody dispute for his son's statements, alleging his ex-wife filled the boy's head with lies.