Prosecutors to seek release of fair worker held in rapes

Some charges against Jeffrey D. Witham have been dropped.

Prosecutors are expected to appear in court today to again seek the release of an 18-year-old Marshfield Fair carnival worker accused of raping two girls last weekend.

Saying there was "insufficient evidence," authorities dropped several charges yesterday against Jeffrey D. Witham of Oxford, Maine, including assaulting and forcefully raping a 14-year-old girl and assaulting and kidnapping a 13-year-old girl.

He remains accused of statutory rape against the older girl and forcefully raping the younger girl.

Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokeswoman for the Plymouth district attorney's office, said prosecutors dropped the charges "in the interest of justice."

A day earlier, the older girl changed her story and said she had consented to sex with Witham. Prosecutors said the younger girl told investigators that, contrary to her previous account, Witham had not chased, bitten, or kidnapped her. But the younger girl continued to say that Witham had raped her.

The older girl, however, cast doubt on whether Witham had raped the 13-year-old, telling investigators there was not enough time for them to have had sex, officials said.

Middleton said prosecutors plan to appear in Brockton Superior Court today to ask a judge to release Witham. He is being held on $150,000 bail.

On Wednesday, a Plymouth District Court judge refused to release Witham before prosecutors revised their charges.

Kate Iaccarino, a lawyer representing Witham, said she "wholeheartedly agrees" with the prosecutors' efforts to have him released. Neither she nor prosecutors would comment on whether the other charges would be dismissed.

The alleged victims initially told police that they had recently met Witham, a newly hired ticket collector for the carnival's rides, and that they had spoken to him on their cellphones before he went to one of their homes on Sunday, according to court records.

They said he arrived at the home when they were alone, entered their living room, and proceeded to rape them. They told police that they tried to escape and that he chased them, biting one of them and dragging her through the woods.