NORWICH – Following a two-day sex crime trial at the Chenango County Courthouse, a jury returned after two hours of deliberations and declared the defendant not guilty.

Clarence A. Brown Jr., 35, of Pitcher, was found not guilty of all three charges against him: first degree sexual abuse, a D class felony, third degree sexual abuse, a sex crime misdemeanor, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

Assistant Public Defender Diane M. DiStefano said the case lacked any physical evidence and was an instance of “his word against hers.”

Brown was arrested April 5, 2010 by the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office after he allegedly molested a sleeping 20-year-old woman. According to police, Brown climbed into bed with the woman and her four-year-old child at around 4 a.m. a few days earlier, on April 1, and put his hand inside the alleged victim’s pants.

During the trial, Brown took the stand in his own defense and denied even being in the room at the time of the alleged incident. He claimed to have gone into the room at just before 7 a.m. after a child being dropped off for baby-sitting disturbed him sleeping on the couch. He said he went into the woman’s bedroom and laid on top of the blanket with a four-year-old child between him and the alleged victim. Unable to get back to sleep, he said he got back up a few minutes later and left.

The purported victim in the case was called twice to the stand during the trial and Chenango County Court Judge W. Howard Sullivan denied a request by DiStefano to recall her for a third time right before closing arguments.

“I will not recall the victim. I think it unduly highlights her testimony, and it’s something that should have been done in the regular cross-examination,” he said.

First Assistant District Attorney Stephen M. Dunshee called four witnesses to the stand: the victim, her grandmother, an ex-boyfriend and Chenango County Sheriff’s Detective Kevin Powell. The defense called two witnesses: Clarence Brown and his mother, Cindy.

During her closing arguments, DiStefano focused on inconsistencies in the prosecution’s witness testimony. She said the accuser, her mother and her former boyfriend all gave different stories on how the incident was later reported to relatives. She also noted that the woman failed to report the incident to anyone until after she got back from school at around 2 p.m. later that day.

Though the accuser denied it on the stand, DiStefano again reinforced the defense’s theory that the woman went back to sleep after the incident until about 8:30 p.m. and indicated the allegations were fabricated. On cross-examination by DiStefano, the woman said she woke up during the 4 a.m. incident and then laid in bed awake. “I did not go back to sleep, not at all,” she testified, visibly upset.