Joe Lavigne, Jr.

Mr. Lavigne’s claim that the police and prosecutor ignored or, at least, didn’t thoroughly investigate other viable suspects carries some weight. Though a man convicted of raping another young girl lived just down the street from Joe Lavigne's home at the time of his daughter’s rape, no one from the Hurricane Police Department talked to him during the investigation.

“In working sex crimes you always try to identify if you have any sex offenders in the area,� a private detective and former State Police trooper working for Mr. Lavigne's defense, told the jury. He discovered the man and passed his name and address on to the Hurricane Police Department, which was investigating the rape. But Ron Smith, the lead investigator on the case, said at trial he never received the information.

Still, Mr. Smith testified that he did review the State Police’s sex offender registry –which would've had the man's name and address on it— but that he did so "well after the fact.� He told the jury that when he saw the list of sex offenders living in the Lavigne's County, nothing jumped out at him and he didn’t follow-up on any of the names.

The man, meanwhile, still living near Hurricane, told Where Doubt Remains that he didn't know anything about the Lavigne case—at first. When pressed, he later admitted to knowing about the family, but only from news accounts he'd heard nearly a decade ago.

He confirmed that police never spoke with him and then offered that he'd always lived "13 or 14 miles" from the Lavigne's house on Teays Valley Road, contradicting the private investigator's sworn testimony, public records and his former neighbors.

When asked how he knew where the Lavignes had lived when he only remembered them from news reports, he wouldn’t answer.

Mr. Rardin, in his closing argument, told the jury that the man “in no way matches the description (the victim) told you,� and earlier, “Don’t sit back there and say ‘I wonder if that guy did it.’�

He also denied that the police ignored any suspects. “You saw Ron Smith. You saw him with that little girl and if you believe for one second that if he knew somebody else did this or had a lead he wouldn’t try to find the person that hurt (her) … to insinuate that he would let a rapist loose on the street would be just not believable.�

Mr. Rardin didn't respond to requests for comment and Mr. Smith's new chief (he now works for the Winfield Police Department) declined to allow Mr. Smith to comment about his work on the Lavigne case.