DALLAS -- A Dallas County DNA exonoree whom prosecutors plan to retry for murder is in danger of returning to jail after a bond revocation hearing Tuesday in which authorities alleged he has a sexual relationship with his adult niece.
The 37-year-old niece was a court-approved live-in chaperone for Clay Chabot, 49, who was released last year on bond after serving 21 years in prison. She is not related to Chabot by blood. Her mother is the wife of Chabot's brother, but that brother is not the niece's father, prosecutors said.
Chabot's MySpace page includes photographs of him and his niece kissing and participating in an unofficial wedding ceremony, according to court documents. The niece has changed her last name to Chabot, Dallas prosecutor Terri Moore said.
"He represented to the court that this was an uncle-niece relationship," Moore said in a story in The Dallas Morning News. "We give him an inch, he takes a mile."
Chabot's bond should be revoked because he "perpetrated a fraud on the court when he characterized his relationship as uncle and niece," assistant prosecutor Mike Ware told The Associated Press.
Last year, a judge recommended overturning Chabot's 1986 murder conviction because the state's key witness, who testified Chabot had raped and killed a Garland woman, was tied to the crime by DNA evidence. That former witness was Chabot's brother-in-law, Gerald Pabst. He was convicted of capital murder in the case in September.
But prosecutors have said they believe Chabot was involved in the murder and have repeatedly stated their intention to retry him. They have opposed bond for him since last year, arguing that he should receive a new trial because his due process rights were violated, but maintaining that he was guilty.
District Court Judge Mike Snipes did not decide Tuesday whether to revoke Chabot's bond. Snipes said he would give Bruce Anton, Chabot's attorney, time to respond to the "extraordinarily compelling" allegations.
Anton did not immediately respond to a message left by the AP.
Chabot was arrested Monday. Carolyn Campbell Gill, Chabot's sister who lives with her brother as one of the conditions for his release, said authorities are out to get Chabot.
"He is innocent," she said. "He may have fallen in love, but he didn't do anything wrong."
RSS
Mobile
Daily Emails
Twitter
Facebook
