PROVIDENCE, R.I., July 13 (UPI) -- The Rhode Island attorney general has dropped charges against a man accused of committing a rape 32 years ago.
A spokesman for Attorney General Patrick Lynch said going forward with the case against Harold Allen, who was accused of committing the rape when he was 16 in 1975, would be problematic because the alleged victim claims she repressed memories of the incident for more than 30 years, The New York Times reported Friday.
The dismissal said due to Rhode Island case law, "the high burden for admissibility, at trial, of testimony based on repressed memory" would create "a legal impediment that the state is unlikely to overcome."
"Perhaps a prosecutor's greatest power is to dismiss a charge and end an unwarranted criminal prosecution," Lynch said in a statement. "In this case, focusing upon the legal issues that have arisen due to the passage of time since the alleged crime occurred, we have dismissed the charge."
