Her father is serving a life sentence for raping her as a child. This Va. woman now says the crime never happened

Neal Augenstein | naugenstein@wtop.com
May 16, 2024, 5:07 AM

The life sentence being served by a Virginia father was for a vile crime — raping and sexually battering his young daughter with the assistance of his wife and allowing other adults to do the same. ... Alfred “Rick” Alessi was sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years in October 2016, after a Louisa County jury found him guilty of rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery of his daughter, when she was in first and second grades. Alessi’s then-14-year-old daughter took the stand during the trial as a key prosecution witness and detailed the abuse.

Now 21 years old, Vanessa Alessi says the crimes against her never happened. ... Rick Alessi’s attorneys have filed a petition for writ of actual innocence with Virginia’s Court of Appeals, including a three-page affidavit from Vanessa Alessi, in which she acknowledged she was lying on the witness stand during her father’s trial.

“I have regretted my actions since it happened. I have decided to come forward now and tell the truth because I feel tremendous guilt and regret about lying that my father and mother sexually abused me,” Vanessa Alessi wrote in her affidavit signed July 11, 2022.

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Virginia attorney general says daughter coerced to recant

The office of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares argues the conviction should remain in place, and the request to have the appeals court declare Rick Alessi innocent should be dismissed. ... “This actual innocence case, brought by a man convicted of raping and molesting his daughter, is predicated exclusively on an alleged recantation that the convicted rapist’s attorneys wrote for his daughter,” writes Special Assistant to the Attorney General Brandon Wrobleski.

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Neal Augenstein
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.https://twitter.com/AugensteinWTOP
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