Alleged Molestor Of San Leandro Girls Cleared Of 7 Charges, Deadlocked On 3

Bay City News -- An Alameda County jury found a 51-year-old man not guilty today of seven felony counts of performing lewd acts with children for allegedly molesting two female relatives in San Leandro nine years ago.

But jurors deadlocked on three other counts of child molestation.

As a result of that decision Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer allowed defendant Levy Genove, who had been held at Santa Rita Jail in lieu of $350,000 bail, to be released on his own recognizance.

Hymer ordered Genove, who is from the Philippines, to return to court on Monday when prosecutors will announce whether they will retry him on the three remaining counts on which there was a deadlock.

Jurors deliberated for about five days before announcing their verdicts.

The allegations , when a 20-year-old woman told San Leandro Police that Genove, her uncle, had molested her over a one-year period in 2003, when she was 12.

The woman told police that Genove was visiting the Bay Area at the time from the Philippines and that he was staying in San Leandro.

In the course of last year's investigation, San Leandro detectives discovered that Genove was planning to leave the U.S. to fly back to the Philippines shortly after the woman came forward with her complaint.

Last July, San Leandro police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers  arrested Genove at the San Francisco International Airport before he could board a flight to the Philippines.

In the course of further investigation, San Leandro police alleged that Genove had molested other family members at around the same 2003 time period.

In her closing argument at last week's trial, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Venus Johnson told jurors she believed there was sufficient evidence to convict Genove of molesting the alleged victims, who are adults now but were under the age of 14 at the time of the alleged offenses.

Johnson said jurors should believe the testimony by the two women who testified during Genove's trial because "they have nothing to hide and nothing to gain" by testifying against him.

But Genove's lawyer, Alameda County Associate Public Defender Patrick Jensen, said, "The only just and reasonable verdict is not guilty" because there were holes in the prosecution's case against Genove.

Jensen said, "No one saw anything, there's an ever-shifting story" by the alleged victims, Genove doesn't have a criminal record and 22 family members testified as character witnesses on behalf of the defendant.

Johnson said in rebuttal that it shouldn't be surprising that Genove's relatives testified in support of him.

"They love him, but that doesn't mean he's not a child molester," Johnson said.

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