An Amherst man’s conviction for child molestation was overturned Oct. 30. Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge James Miraldi ruled to throw out the conviction of Joel Covender, 46, who spent 11 years in prison for allegedly molesting his then-stepdaughter and stepson in 1994. Covender was charged with one count of gross sexual imposition and one count of felonious sexual penetration in April 1994, according to court records. He was convicted of the charges in April 1996. Miraldi granted Covender’s motion for a new trial in August 2013. During the Oct. 30 hearing, Covender’s former stepson, Joshua Slone, was called to the witness stand where he testified that he lied about Covender touching him inappropriately when he was 5-years old. ‘I lied about a lot of stuff when I was 5,’ Slone said. ‘Joel was a good man to me. He loved me like I was his own kid.’ Slone’s testimony in court Thursday contradicted tape recordings that his grandmother, Nancy Kullman, captured of his then 6-year-old sister, Amber Slone, now 27, telling Kullman that ‘Daddy Joel’ touched her in her private parts. The prosecutor mentioned that Amber was evaluated by MetroHealth Medical Center officials in 1994 and was determined to have physical signs of sexual abuse. Covender’s defense attorney, W. Scott Ramsey, argued that Amber was not evaluated by a doctor but by a nurse practitioner who had testified 1,100 times in sexual abuse cases on behalf of the state. Joshua and Amber Slone urged the Ohio Parole Board in 2007 to release Covender, asserting that they had made up the 1994 allegations. Kullman said she was ‘shocked’ to discover that her grandchildren had petitioned for Covender’s release in 2007 because she believed her granddaughter was being truthful in 1994 when she disclosed details to her of the sexual assault between Amber and Covender. ‘I believed my granddaughter because kids just don’t have that kind of information in their head to lie about something like that,’ Kullman said. ‘You don’t say those kinds of things unless you’ve been through them.’ Kullman said she didn’t recall Amber ever having an issue with lying. In pointing out a Centers for Children and Youth Services counseling session document that Kullman had signed, however, Ramsey said that Kullman, at the time, clearly had been informed by one of the center’s workers that Amber had issues with being truthful. When Ramsey further questioned Covender’s ex-stepson about why he had decided to urge the parole board for Covender’s release, Joshua simply said he wanted to make a wrong right. ‘I wanted to right a wrong that I had done,’ Joshua said. ‘Joel never molested me. To the best of my knowledge and from all the conversations I’ve had with my sister, he never touched Amber either.’ There were questions brought up by Covender’s defense during the hearing that suggested that Kullman could have manipulated Amber into making the allegations up because she was disgruntled about Covender converting his then-wife, April Covender, and stepchildren into the Jehovah’s Witness faith. Kullman completely denied being suggestive in her conversations with Amber in 1994.
She went on to say that Covender’s religion did not bother her, but did say that she was disgruntled by her grandchildren’s former claims that Covender was physically abusive to them and their mother. Joshua said that while he may have been ‘spanked’ on occasion for his behavior when he was a child, Covender never beat him, his sister or his mother. After hearing closing arguments from the defense and prosecutor, Miraldi ruled that there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Covender committed the crimes he was previously convicted for. With his family surrounding him, Covender called the outcome of the trial ‘bittersweet’ and talked about looking forward to what’s to come in life. ‘Justice was done today,’ Covender said with a breath of relief. ‘Finally, my name has been cleared.’
