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DA: Girl Recants Carnival Rape Story

Witham Being Held On $150,000 Bail

POSTED: 2:26 pm EDT August 20, 2008
UPDATED: 4:39 pm EDT August 20, 2008

One of the teenage girls who accused an 18-year-old carnival worker of rape has recanted her story, the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

A Plymouth District Court judge denied reducing bail for Jeffrey D. Witham of Oxford, Maine, who was accused of raping the girls, ages 13 and 14, at one of the girl's homes.

Witham was an employee of the Marshfield Fair at the time of the alleged attacks.

The girls initially told police that they had met Witham at the fair and he went to one of their homes on Sunday. There, the girls claimed, he raped them. The girls said they tried to run from the house, but he chased them and dragged one of them into the woods, police said. When they escaped, one of the girls called her father, who then called police.

The district attorney's office said one of the victims said no forcible rape occurred. The second victim is still in the process of being interviewed, the district attorney's office said.

Witham, a ride operator at the fair, was charged with two counts of rape, indecent assault and battery, indecent assault and battery on a person under 14, kidnapping and assault and battery. He pleaded not guilty on Monday and was ordered held on $150,000 bail.

Witham is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 18.


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