Illegal immigrant cleared of assault charge

FRANKLIN, Ind. -- A polygraph test has cleared an illegal Mexican immigrant of a sexual assault he was charged with nine months ago.\nJohnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner said he intends to file a motion to dismiss the charge against Celedonio DeJesus on Tuesday.\nIn the meantime, the prosecutor was asking a judge to order DeJesus released from the Johnson County jail on his own recognizance. Because DeJesus is an illegal alien, however, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has 10 days to pick him up from jail to deport him to Mexico.\nIf the INS does not claim him, he will be freed.\nDeJesus, 34, had always denied involvement in the sexual assault in a Greenwood park, and took the polygraph test Saturday to clear his name.\nFor the past nine months, DeJesus has been held in jail on $250,000 bond, charged with criminal deviate conduct in the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in Greenwood on Dec. 2.\nHe was to go on trial Sept. 17 in Johnson County Superior Court 2 and would have faced six to 20 years in prison if convicted.\nThe victim said two Hispanic men she met at a gas station took her to Northwest Park and sexually assaulted her in their van, then left. When Greenwood police went to the park, a van returned -- this time carrying three Hispanic men. The girl identified DeJesus and Gilberto Dias as her assailants. The third man, Vicente Tochimani, was let go.\nWhile Dias pleaded guilty last week and was sentenced to 810 days, DeJesus refused to take a plea bargain.\nAlthough polygraph tests ordinarily are not admissible in court, Hamner and defense attorney Kenneth Harshey of Indianapolis agreed that DeJesus would take one Saturday at the county jail. The bilingual polygraph examiner posed the questions in Spanish.\n"The polygraph examiner said it was clear-cut: no deception," Hamner told the Johnson County Daily Journal.\nHamner now believes that Tochimani -- the man Greenwood police let go -- probably was the girl's second assailant. Tochimani reportedly has returned to Mexico.\nDeJesus' lawyer said his client is still absorbing the news that he's been cleared.\n"He's anxious to see his family," Harshey said. "He's somewhat in shock, I think.