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Prosecutors Will Not Retry Man On Sexual Abuse Charge

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 15, 2007

TAMPA - Federal prosecutors have decided not to retry a Palm Harbor man after a judge overturned his conviction on sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl on an airplane.

U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday ruled in June that he should not have admitted prejudicial evidence in the February trial of Ronald Evan Mays, who was found guilty of abusive sexual contact with a child while on an airplane and obstruction of justice. He faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison.

The obstruction of justice charge remains in effect, and Mays is set to be sentenced in January. The charge relates to an allegation he obstructed an investigation by deleting child pornography on his computer. He was not charged with possessing child pornography.

Merryday, in a 10-page ruling, said he should not have allowed the prosecution to present evidence at trial that Mays had deleted child pornography. Merryday said he should have required prosecution witnesses to merely state that Mays had deleted items from the computer without describing the items as child pornography.

"In short, admitting the fact of Mays's deletion of child pornography profoundly adulterated the verdict" on the child sexual contact charge, Merryday wrote.

Mays was set to go on trial again Monday on the charge, but prosecutors, without explanation, elected not to go forward.

Defense attorney Frank Louderback said his client was "pleased, obviously," with the decision not to prosecute him again on the sexual contact charge.

Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, would not comment on why the prosecution elected not to go forward.

The girl was traveling unaccompanied on a Southwest Airlines flight from Tampa to Detroit on June 20, 2006. Authorities alleged that during the flight, Mays repeatedly touched the girl in an inappropriate sexual manner.

After Mays' arrest on the sexual contact charges, his employer gave law enforcement consent to search the laptop computer he used for work, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Authorities said they found child pornography on it.

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