Jury Discounts Witnesses in Rape Case : Mistrial Declared in 9-3 Vote for Acquittal

Two times Matthew T. McInroe has been arrested for serious crimes because of eyewitness identification. For the second time Wednesday, prosecutors failed to prove a case against the 28-year-old Westminster man.

A mistrial was declared Wednesday in a rape case against McInroe despite testimony from five eyewitnesses, including the victim. Jurors had voted 9 to 3 to acquit McInroe.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael A. Koski said he does not know yet whether he will ask the court to retry McInroe. He said he would have to discuss it with the rape victim first. But Koski said he expects to go ahead and set a date for a new trial.

Prosecutor Disappointed

“I’m disappointed.” Koski said. “I thought we had a solid case.”

The defendant later said he wondered when “this nightmare” was ever going to end.

McInroe’s first brush with eyewitnesses was in 1985, when he was identified in a line-up by police as the prowler whom police had chased through a Garden Grove yard. The owner of the property was shot to death by the prowler. McInroe was considered a suspect because he had been reported to be a suspect in an earlier burglary in that area.

But McInroe was exonerated in the murder. The gun used to kill the man belonged to a 35-year-old ex-convict who a short time later was killed by police in a shoot-out. But even before that fact surfaced, prosecutors told Garden Grove police that too many witnesses could prove that McInroe was somewhere else.

McInroe’s troubles were far from over, however. As a result of his arrest in that incident, his picture appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 27, 1985. The victim in an April 16, 1985, rape at her Westminster home identified McInroe from the picture as the rapist.

McInroe was then ordered to appear in numerous line-ups, where he was identified by the victim, two of the victim’s neighbors and two neighborhood children. The neighbors all said they had seen him near the woman’s home the day she was raped. That led to his rape charge.

But several jurors said after McInroe’s trial ended Wednesday that there were too many discrepancies between the witnesses’ description of the man they saw and McInroe. Some jurors noted that the victim did not recognize McInroe’s voice, which has a distinctive bass quality.

Others pointed to a telephone bill introduced by McInroe’s attorney, Jack M. Earley, which showed that he had placed a call from his home, which was not near the victim’s home, to his boss at an aluminum company at the same time that one of the eyewitnesses said she had seen him in the victim’s neighborhood.

Free on $25,000 Bail

Two of the jurors later shook hands with McInroe, who is free on $25,000 bail. They wished him luck and told him they were convinced of his innocence.

“I know how that lady (the victim) must feel. I know how I’d feel if my mom or sister had been raped,” McInroe said. “But you would think it would be important to her to get the right guy.”

Some jurors who voted to acquit McInroe said the three who voted guilty did not believe the victim could have been wrong. But the majority thought the victim had been too easily swayed by the picture in the newspaper.

“It’s all unreal,” McInroe said. “And all because my picture was in the paper by mistake.”

Superior Court Judge James A. Jackman has ordered McInroe to return next Wednesday to see if prosecutors intend to try him again.