Lawrenceburg, In. — A Moores Hill man has been acquitted by a Dearborn County jury on allegations he molested a child multiple times over the course of six years. Adam Potraffke, 53, of Moores Hill, was charged back in 2017 and the acquittal came last Friday.
Once facing at least 50-years in prison he is now free.
Dearborn/Ohio County prosecutor Lynn Deddens released the following statement:
“I respect the verdict the jurors returned in this case. They listened attentively to an extremely difficult case…a case that involved a young teenager who stated that she was molested by her step father over a period of time when she was between the ages of five and ten years old. This brave, young lady made the disclosure to law enforcement when she was fifteen years old and testified now at the age of seventeen. As a Prosecutor, child molesting cases, rape cases and other sexual charges are very difficult to prove because the criminal act typically occurs in the presence of only two people, the perpetrator and the victim. To further complicate a prosecution, physical evidence is rarely left behind. In this very CSI world that we live in, a case such as this comes down to the word of the victim against the word of the defendant. Nonetheless, my office believed in what this young lady reported to law enforcement, but the jurors felt that the evidence was not there to convict him. While this verdict is not what we were seeking, I sincerely hope that it does not discourage victims of sexual crimes from reporting their victimization to the police.”
