A Walton County man who says he was wrongly accused of molesting his teenage son awaits word whether he’ll be retried on the charges in which the jury was deadlocked.
Stacy Everett was in the Walton County Jail nearly two years before his case went to trial in June.
He tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish he was offered a plea deal on lesser charges more than once, but refused.
He believes his son, who was 14 at the time, was coerced into making the allegations.
“I was not going to plea out to something that I did not do,” says Everett.
The jury acquitted Everett on half of the counts and was hung on the remaining ones.
“In my eyes and everybody else’s eyes, I actually beat that trial... because the accusers were my best witnesses,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.
Everett is out of jail on bond while he awaits word on a new trial.
Walton County Assistant District Attorney, who tried the first case, tells Parrish he has not made a decision yet whether to retry Everett. He wants to talk to the victim’s family first.
Everett says while he was angry the first few months he sat in jail, it gave him an opportunity to become closer to God. As former youth and prison minister, he says he now has empathy for the prisoners he counseled for so many years.
But, despite at least one victory in court, he says there will also be a stigma attached to his reputation.
“It’s very hard to overcome this type of allegation for an innocent person,” he says. “I don’t know if I’ll ever overcome it.”