Gov. Bob McDonnell granted a conditional pardon Tuesday to a man who was wrongly convicted of a 2000 sexual assault.
In 2008, Johnathan Montgomery was convicted of molesting a 10-year-old girl outside her grandma’s house when he was 14 years old. Nearly two weeks ago, the now woman recanted her story a few weeks ago. According to some reports, she said she made up the story because she was caught looking for sexually explicit web sites.
Montgomery served more than four years in the Greenville Correctional Center. The conditional release was granted after the Mid-Atlantic Innocence project, which is based in Washington D.C., filed a petition Monday night for his conditional release. He was originally scheduled to serve another 2.5 years of an originally 7.5 year sentence.
The now 22-year-old woman, Elizabeth Coast, is facing perjury charges in connection with the case. Montgomery’s original conviction was vacated at a November 9 hearing.
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