#4- Hometown Hard News- "State resets in Child Rape Trial".

Larry Neff Jr. is currently on trial for the rape of a girl who was 11 years old at the time of the incident. This Fouke resident is far from the first to face trial for something so heinous, the town seems to have an alarming number of similar instances. The alleged victims mother passed away when she was 4 which resulted in her and her brother being sent to live with a relative of their father. This woman was living with Neff and later married him. The defense attorney for Neff, Tommy Potter, has a reputation around the Texarkana area for defending questionable individuals which in a small town setting doesn't bode well for the chances of an unbiased jury.

Potter is resting his primary defense on the lack of supporting evidence involving pornography that was supposedly show to the victim and Neff's poor health. Neff's house was searched as well as most of his personal devices but experts were only able to say there was no apparent sign of pornography. In this case something read off of an external storage device would not have left an imprint on the devices other than the fact that it was connected to the PC. The experts said that USB drives had been read by some of the devices but they had no way of telling what was on them without the drives themselves. This lack of evidence take plays strongly off the fact that their are private browsing options that would render all of Neff's search history irretrievable, even for said experts.

The other part of this defense deals with Neff's weight. Potter says that Neff weighed close to 400 pounds and "had to sleep in a chair" due to breathing problems. This argument is notorious for not holding water in court. The fact is that if someone wants to do something bad enough, they'll generally find a way to make it work. And the testimony from the alleged victim stated Neff assaulted her with his hands and made her perform a sexual act on him. Overpowering a frail 11 year old girl doesn't seem like a difficult task for someone who weighs literally almost an estimated 4 time more that she does.

Physical evidence isn't particularly strong so in the end it will likely come down to the jury deciding between the testimony of the victim or "innocent until proven guilty". It is hard to separate facts from fiction in hearsay cases but originally the victims cry for help came in the form of a note given to her guardian by the woman's daughter. The note was submitted to evidence which is particularly compelling from an emotional standpoint. No one seems to doubt the authenticity of the note so far so if a little girl were to write for help then pass that note to another young lady who is evidently like a sister to her, it doesn't seem that odd.

Neff is currently out on a $50,000 bail. If convicted of rape Neff faces 10 to 40 years in prison, as well as a possible 5 to 20 years if convicted for a charge of second-degree sexual assault. It is likely that if the rape charge sticks so will the sexual assault charge, meaning 50 year old Neff is potentially looking at life in prison.


Original story- http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/texarkana/story/2019/sep/25/state-rests-child-rape-trial/796643/