It has happened again.

There was another front page adorned with the photo of a person who had been charged with a crime, and a familiar headline: Not Guilty.

A few months ago it was Dr. Jerry Lazaroff. He was the child psychologist who had been accused of inappropriately touching several young patients.

Last week it was Lisa Scott. She’s the Lower Chichester woman who had been charged with having sex with a group of teen boys.

The jury didn’t buy the boys’ story. They had more than a few issues of their own. At least one of them now faces rape charges. They changed their story. At one point they told authorities they wanted to recant their version of what happened.

But the case went to trial anyhow. Lisa Scott was on the front page of the newspaper when she was charged, her hands in handcuffs.

She appeared again on the morning that the jury was mulling her fate. It did not take them long. They returned the same morning and acquitted her of all charges.

I certainly wanted to be sure that we gave her acquittal equal treatment as we did to the story of her being charged. But I did not want to run that photo of her in handcuffs. I dispatched reporter Rose Quinn to Scott’s Lower Chichester neighborhood to see if she was willing to sit down for an interview as well as a new photo.

That’s when I found another still another seeming indignity of how the system works. Lisa Scott was acquitted, but she was going back to jail.
That’s the way the system works. Since she had been transported to the courthouse from the prison (that’s right, she was in jail since March for a crime a jury did not believe she committed), she had to return there before being released. She was finally set free sometime after 9 o’clock last Friday night.

Quinn managed to make contact with family members, and got a new photo of Scott that we used on the front page Saturday. She has declined requests for interview.

I have been struck by how polite, even kind, her and her family have been through this ordeal. She even posted a note on her door indicating she was not doing interviews at this time.

I don’t blame her a bit.

Several readers called to indicate they were troubled by the fact that these people were splashed all over the front page, only to be cleared.
At least in court. Clearing themselves of the stain of their ordeal is another matter. It’s a perfectly legitimate point, one I think about more and more all the time.

On Thursday, columnist Gil Spencer sat down with D.A. Mike Green yesterday to talk about the recent string of those acquitted in these sex cases and how his office handles such issues. You can read about it here.

In the meantime, should Lisa Scott change her mind and decide she wants to tell her story, I’d love to tell it.

Seems like the least we can do.