Convicted child molester could go free because judge accepted a doughnut

Convicted child molester James Degroff is getting a second chance to proving he never molested a 6-year-old girl four years ago. What’s so rare about this case is not that it's going back to court, but the reason why. The answer lies in the back halls of the Thurston County Courthouse.

In 2003, the first trial judge unwittingly unraveled the case by accepting an ordinary doughnut. The trouble is, the judge took the doughnut from a juror deciding the case.

After Degroff's conviction, his attorney accused Judge Richard Strophy of making biased comments about Degroff during sidebar conversations. The claims could not be substantiated. But because Judge Strophy took the doughnut and later had a brief conversation with a different juror about a potluck dinner, an appeals court threw out the first verdict and ordered a new trial.

Full Story Here