Say hello to Charles County, Md. prosecutor Tiffany L. Rodenberger . I didn't think anyone was still prosecuting those "recovered memory" sex abuse cases, but she is. And, absent any evidence against Michael Rasmussen, she's pulling out all the stops.

Mr. Rasmussen is accused of sexually molesting his now-adult daughter. The prosecution has that shaky (and pretty much discredited) "recovered memory" testimony, and that's about it. No corroborating evidence, not other witnesses, nada. But Ms. Rosenberger sure can drag the case out until Mr. Rasmussen can no longer afford his own attorney, and will have to rely on a public defender, and she seems intent on doing that. But her latest tactic goes beyond even that.

She kept Mr. Rasmussen in solitary confinement (for his own protection, naturally), and [b]refused to let his shower or shave for a week prior to the start of his trial. Then she had him brought into the courtroom in his jail jumpsuit, dirty, smelly, and unshaven. (His wife had brought him clean clothes for his trial, but she would not allow him to change clothes.)

The intent, of course, was to make him look and smell like a degenerate in front of the jury, on the first day of his trial.

Fortunately, the tactic didn't work. The trial was postponed, and no jury saw Mr. Rasmussen in that unkempt condition. And apparently the judge caught on to this tactic, as well. Mr. Rasmussen is now in the Prince Georges County jail, has his own cell, is now permitted to shower, has clean clothes, and can once again have visitors.

And a lot more people are watching this trial now, too. There seems to be little doubt that, without suborning perjury, Tiffany Rodenberger has no case. I will almost certainly have more on this trial later.

Onward and upward,
airforce