LEONARDTOWN ---  What does it take to make a rape case?  Evidence would be nice, or in the case of when St. Mary’s States Attorney Richard Fritz himself was charged, along with two other young men, of the gang rape of a 15-year old girl, Fritz pled guilty.

Now, decades later in the pinnacle of his legal career, Fritz is prosecuting a boy for the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl without the first bit of evidence, according to the attorney for the boy.

On Thursday at 8 am, a crowd of St. Mary’s County citizens are gathering at the St. Mary’s Circuit Courthouse, only steps from the site of the last hangings which took place at the historic scene of local justice, and will protest the continued jailing of John Edison Jr.

Kevin J. McDevitt, a criminal defense attorney in Leonardtown who formerly was a prosecutor in Baltimore and St. Mary’s County, was passionate in his view of the case by the States Attorney against his client.

“This case is a shining example of how children’s missteps can result in a tragic miscarriage of justice,” McDevitt told ST. MARY’S TODAY.
 “Despite my consistent requests The State of Maryland has yet to provide me or my client with a single shred of forensic evidence that would in anyway corroborate the violent rape that the victim has alleged.”
 “It is impossible to have the type of violent forced rape that is alleged in the charging documents and leave no injuries or physical evidence whatsoever,” said McDevitt.  “My client anxiously wants this case to proceed as soon as possible so that he may prove his innocence and go home to his parents that miss him.”

On July 5^th St. Mary’s County BCI detectives arrested John Kendall Edison Jr., 16 year of age, from Great Mills, Maryland. He was charged as an adult with Second Degree Rape, Second Degree Sex Offense, Fourth Degree Sex Offense, and Second Degree Assault and incarcerated at the St. Mary’s County Detention Center.  Police say the arrest came as a result of an investigation into the rape of a 12 year old girl at the suspect’s home, which occurred in the early morning hours of July 5^th   .