Sexual abuse charges were recently dismissed for a Washington man.

Court documents show that Judge Myron Gookin granted Washington County Attorney John Gish’s motion to dismiss charges without prejudice against 52-year-old Gary Keith Walker for third-degree sexual abuse, a class C felony, and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, an aggravated misdemeanor. Walker was arrested on these charges in February for alleged incidents dated on October 15, 2020. The Washington Police Department received a report of the suspected assault of a 14-year-old female in January. The victim also stated during an interview at the Child Protection Center that there were prior incidents involving Walker when the family lived in Henry County. Law enforcement then found two previously reported incidents in 2011 and 2008 involving other female victims around the same age.

In the motion to dismiss, Gish states that following the sexual abuse allegations and Walker’s removal from the victim’s home, the victim’s mother allegedly complained about managing the household and income on her own. On February 11th, the mother brought the victim to Gish’s office claiming that the victim wanted to recant the allegations. A petition for a Child in Need of Assistance (CINA) was then filed, identifying the sexual abuse allegations and the mother’s pressure placed on the victim as reasons among others to remove the child from the home. On June 22nd, the victim testified in a CINA hearing that by not having Walker in the home he could not care for the family and the family was hurting without him there. She then recanted her previous allegations, and the CINA petition was dismissed.

Dismissal without prejudice means that Walker could be charged again, as Gish stated that upon reaching adulthood and gaining independence the victim may present a truthful recollection. Until that time she remains “the ward of a parent who consciously or subconsciously gaslights” them.