Ex-inmate cleared by DNA is jailed again

Thomas Doswell, who was released from prison after 19 years when DNA tests cleared him of a rape, is back in jail.

Pittsburgh police on Monday charged Mr. Doswell in connection with an Aug. 14 incident in East Liberty in which he allegedly coaxed a 17-year-old girl into his car.

One of the witnesses in the case is Adrienne Young, a local civic activist who dated and supported Mr. Doswell after his release. Their relationship soured after several months, ending with charges of simple assault being filed against him.

In last month's incident, the girl, of Highland Park, said Mr. Doswell prevented her from exiting the vehicle by continuing to accelerate. She said he was trying to caress her when he crashed his vehicle in Larimer, injuring her.

Mr. Doswell, 47, faces charges of reckless endangerment, unlawful restraint and luring a child into a vehicle.

He is in the Allegheny County Jail on $50,000 bail.

The girl said she was walking to a store when Mr. Doswell offered her a ride and she accepted at a bus stop in the 5100 block of Penn Avenue.

Once she was inside the car, the girl said, Mr. Doswell learned that she was a 17-year-old high school student.

He told her that he was a minister who sometimes sold "hard," a reference to crack cocaine, according to an affidavit that supports his arrest.

The teen said Mr. Doswell told her he wanted to "sex me up," and eased his hand across the center console close to her leg.

The girl told police that she tried to leave the car at Penn and Negley avenues, but that Mr. Doswell sped up, ran a traffic light and took a circuitous route to Larimer Avenue.

He lost control of his car on Deary Street, where he crashed into a brick wall.

The girl got out and began walking. She soon was picked up by police and an ambulance that took her to Children's Hospital for treatment of a leg injury.

The girl's mother, of Brookline, said her daughter is an honor student at City Charter High School. The teenager, who works for a housekeeping company, had just attended a meeting with her employer at the Thomas Merton Center in the 5100 block of Penn Avenue when the incident occurred, her mother said.

"She's a smart 17-year-old who ended up making a stupid judgment call," the mother said. She added that her daughter told her: "The minute I got in the car I realized I made a major mistake."

Mr. Doswell has had other run-ins with the law since his release in August 2005. This summer, he was in court over domestic disputes involving two of his girlfriends.

Ms. Young is one of them. He was accused in June of choking her during an argument. Afterward, Mr. Doswell was denied a protection-from-abuse order against Ms. Young.

She said it was coincidence that she was at a traffic light Aug. 14 when she noticed a car speeding up behind her, nearly striking her vehicle.

As the Doswell car turned the corner at Negley Avenue, she said she and Mr. Doswell locked eyes. An apparently young, frightened, female passenger was with him.

Ms. Young said she continued in the same direction and came upon the scene moments after the crash.

Mr. Doswell's attorney, James DePasquale, said he will seek a bail reduction for his client at a hearing today before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski.

Mr. DePasquale called his client "a good guy."

"This whole thing is something that is created by this Adrienne Young. I do not believe, based on my knowledge of this situation, that there was anything of an inappropriate nature that was going on," Mr. DePasquale said.

Mr. Doswell also faces a hearing today on charges of simple assault stemming from his last run-in with Ms. Young.

His bail in that case was conditional on not having any contact with Ms. Young. Prosecutors claim Mr. Doswell violated that condition.

Meanwhile, the teenager's mother has expressed unhappiness with the police investigation, complaining that an officer from the East Liberty station who responded to the accident called her daughter a liar.

In a letter to city Police Chief Dominic J. Costa dated Aug. 21, she said police did not properly complete forms or take a detailed report from her daughter either at the scene or the following day.

"My daughter was perceived as fleeing the scene of an accident, and was treated like a 'prostitute' instead of what she was: a 17-year-old girl in shock, trying to flee her abductor," she wrote.

She said her daughter's pockets and bag were searched, and a police officer, upon finding $20, asked her: "What did you do to get this money?"