It should be noted that the Michigan Supreme Court was split down its traditional lines on the decision not to grant leave for new trial.

High court won't hear Swain appeal

The Michigan Supreme Court won't hear the appeal of a Burlington woman seeking a new trial after being convicted of sexually assaulting her adopted son.

In a 4-3 decision announced Friday, the high court said it would not hear the appeal of Lorinda Swain.

"Sadness. I feel sadness," Swain said Friday afternoon while in tears. "I had a bad feeling they were not going to hear it. I have been miserable and worrying that I might have to go back. It is so clear that I am innocent."

Swain, 49, was sentenced in 2002 to 25 to 50 years in prison after a Calhoun County Circuit Court jury found her guilty of four counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct.

Prosecutors alleged that Swain had oral sex with her adopted son, Ronald, in the mid-1990s when he was 5 or 6 years old.

The boy later recanted and then lawyers from the Michigan Innocence Project at the University of Michigan found two witnesses who were not called to testify in the trial. Lawyers argued that the witnesses, a bus driver and a neighbor, would have cast doubt on the testimony of Ronald Swain and his brother.

Last year Circuit Judge Conrad Sindt granted the defense motion for a new trial and released her on bond but that decision was appealed by prosecutors to the Michigan Court of Appeals.

That court overturned the decision by Judge Sindt and Swain's attorney's asked the Michigan Supreme Court to hear the case.

But in a single page decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court said "we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court."

That could mean that Swain's conviction is not overturned and she would return to prison.

"We are very disappointed but it is not over," David Moran, one of the defense attorneys on the case said Friday. "We do anticipate further steps and will file a motion for reconsideration."

He said the defense team has 21 days to ask the Supreme Court to look again at the case.

"We need four judges to take a look," Moran said. "We are hopeful that we can persuade the court to take another look at it."

Moran would not speculate about further appeals, perhaps to the federal courts, if the Michigan Supreme Court rejects further motions.

Prosecutor Susan Mladenoff could not be reached Friday afternoon for comment.

Meanwhile, Swain, who has been living with her parents, said she attempted to see Mladenoff and District Judge John Hallacy, who was prosecutor at the time of Swain's trial, at the Calhoun County Courthouse on Friday.

She hoped to persuade them to drop their appeals and dismiss the case.

But neither would meet with her, she said.

"I had to at least try to see them face to face," Swain said. "I have been in a prison cell nine years and I can't believe anyone would send me back to prison just so they would not take a loss (of a conviction)."

Michigan Innocence Clinic Child Sexual Abuse Case