Rape charges dropped against cabdriver

The prosecutor said the woman who claimed to be raped didn't object to dropping the charges.

Prosecutors cleared a Cape Girardeau cabdriver accused of rape Wednesday with a statement questioning whether the charges were fabricated.

No charges will be filed against the accuser, Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said.

Charles A. Faverty, 43, faced up to seven years in prison and a $5,000 fine if he had been convicted. His trial had been set for Monday.

"Further investigation by the Cape Girardeau Police Department and Amy Metzinger, the attorney for Charles Faverty, has led me to question whether this crime actually occurred," Swingle said in a news release.

The woman didn't object to the charges being dropped, Swingle said. "She does not want to testify."

Faverty could not be reached for comment. Metzinger said she had serious doubts about the woman's statements.

The woman accused Faverty of raping her near her home Aug. 8, 2004, after picking her up at 11 p.m. at the Recovery Room bar on Independence Street in Cape Girardeau.

In an interview earlier this year with the Southeast Missourian, the woman, 47, admitted that she had been drinking beer for about 12 hours before friends called a cab for her. She claimed that she passed out in the back of the cab and awoke to find Faverty raping her.

She told the Southeast Missourian that she was not normally a heavy drinker but that personal problems, including a divorce and the death of her mother, led her to drink.

"I couldn't handle it," she said in May. "So I drank a lot for three months last summer. I just couldn't handle all the losses in my life."

She called police the next day after consulting a lawyer, she said.

The accuser could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

"I have been working on this case for a year," Metzinger said. "I don't think that many of her statements had much credibility."

Faverty was a driver for Kelley Transportation Co. The cab company put him on unpaid leave after his arrest. A call seeking comment on whether he would be returned to duty was not returned.

Swingle attributed the new evidence to both Metzinger and the Cape Girardeau police. He would not elaborate on what information led him to question the validity of the accusation.

Cape Girardeau police officer Debra Oliver, who investigated the rape charge, declined to comment on what new information was uncovered.

Much of the new information came from repeated examinations of the evidence, Metzinger said. "I conducted depositions, interviewed witnesses and further interviewed police officers," she said. "As questions arose, I pursued them until I got the answers I was looking for."

Faverty has a new job now, but Metzinger said she was unsure whether he would be able to return to work as a taxi driver.

Making a false report in order to get someone arrested is a crime, Swingle said. There will be no charges because it is difficult to prove exactly why the rape allegation was made, he said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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